Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Happy Thanksgiving!

The FEHBlog is outside the Capital Beltway for Thanksgiving again this year.  Nothing personal.

Inside the Beltway. according to Govexec.com

  • Paul Conway will head up the [Trump transition /] landing team at OPM, where he served as chief of staff during the George W. Bush administration. He previously held the same role at the Labor Department and began his career in public service as an Education Department appointee in the Reagan administration. [Mr. Conway also is a patient advocate as President of the American Association of Kidney Patients.] and
  • Lawmakers are preparing to bring renewed attention to U.S. Postal Service reform in the lame-duck session of Congress.
That effort interests the FEHBlog  because the bill under consideration [H.R. 5714] would create a new Postal Service Health Program within the FEHBP.  The Govexec.com article suggests to the FEHBlog that we are moving into the final, fine tuning stages of the legislative process.  

The article notes that "A recent score from the Congressional Budget Office that found bipartisan, committee-cleared legislation [H.R. 5714] would not negatively impact the federal debt have boosted the prospects for a vote on the measure in the final weeks of the 114th Congress, according to Senate aides." There's still work to be done on the bill, and the FEHBlog doubts that H.R. 5714 will pass in the final two weeks of the lame duck but the bill should have "legs" in the next Congress.   

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