House Republican freshmen will soon have their first opportunity to vote on repealing President Barack Obama’s 2010 signature health care law, as Majority Leader Eric Cantor said on Friday that such a measure will come to the floor in the near future.
The House voted 36 times to fully repeal or replace Obamacare in the last session of Congress, but freshmen members have not yet had the opportunity to do so.
“I am pleased Eric Cantor has scheduled a vote to repeal Obamacare,” Republican freshman Rep. Trey Radel of Florida told Newsmax. “When even the architects of the bill are referring to it as a train wreck, it’s clear Obamacare is a terrible policy.”
The limited-government, free-market Club for Growth welcomed the upcoming House vote.
“We strongly support the full repeal of Obamacare and we hope that Congress acts to stop this disastrous, anti-growth monstrosity,” Club for Growth spokesman Barney Keller told Newsmax.
As he released the House legislative schedule for May, Cantor said that the House will also vote on tying student loan interest rates to market rates for federal borrowing. The House voted to extend the current rate of 3.4 percent last summer when it was scheduled to increase to 6.8 percent. The current extension runs out at the end of June.
“In the near-term this is expected to provide an interest rate lower than the 6.8 percent fixed in law and over the long-term provide savings for taxpayers,” Cantor said, adding that it will take the politics out setting interest rates and provide a long-term fix.
The House will also vote on the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, creating accountability with the Securities and Exchange Commission, responding to the U.S. hitting its limit on borrowing over the summer, a flex-time bill for private-sector workers, and funding pediatric research.
Cantor said that the House Republicans can expect a heavy workload after it returns from a Memorial Day recess at the end of the month.
“We have a busy legislative agenda planned this summer and our schedule will undoubtedly require further additions,” he said.
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