On June 26, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee approved the Lower Health Care Costs Act (S. 1895) by a bipartisan vote of 20-3. This bill seeks to address several cost-driver issues within our nation’s health care system including protecting patients from surprise medical billing and increasing transparency within health care.

On May 28, as part of the Partnership for the Employer-Sponsored Coverage, ABC signed on to a letter to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee supporting legislation to combat surprise billing in health care and providing key insight on the committee’s draft proposals.

On May 8, ABC submitted a letter to the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee regarding the hearing, “Paid Family and Medical Leave: Helping Workers and Employers Succeed.” In the letter, ABC expressed concern over proposed legislation that would mandate employers to provide 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave funded through a new payroll tax on employers and employees.

On May 9, the White House held a summit on protecting Americans from surprise medical billing, which occurs when insured patients incur unexpected charges after receiving treatment from out-of-network health care providers. On April 2, ABC joined a broad-based coalition in a letter to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions to hold a hearing to examine surprise billing.

On March 29, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General released an audit report on the prevailing wage rates mandated by the Davis-Bacon Act on federal or federally assisted construction projects. 

ABC sent a letter of support to Congress urging passage of the Workforce for an Expanding Economy Act (H.R. 1740) introduced by Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.). The bill would create a new visa program for non-farm, temporary foreign workers and includes important protections for employers and employees, ensuring that jobs remain available for hardworking Americans.

On March 8, H.R. 1, the For the People Act, passed the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives by a party line vote of 234-193. ABC sent a letter in opposition to the legislation, arguing that it is an attack on free speech and would cripple the business structure of nonprofit associations such as ABC. 

On Feb. 28, the U.S. Senate voted to confirm Andrew Wheeler as administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by a vote of 52 to 47. ABC sent a letter to senators in support of Wheeler’s confirmation based on his work as the acting administrator of the EPA to promote an effective environmental permitting process for construction projects, his proposal of a new Waters of the United States rule and his efforts to repeal and replace the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan with the Affordable Clean Energy Plan.

On Jan. 18, the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service issued final regulations and three related pieces of guidance implementing the new qualified business income deduction (also known as the section 199A deduction). The new 20 percent deduction for pass-through entities was created by the ABC-supported Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

On Dec. 22, 2018, at the end of the 115th Congress, President Trump signed The FIRST STEP Act, a bipartisan criminal justice reform bill that aims to reduce recidivism rates by improving educational opportunities for federal inmates and implementing modest sentencing reforms.