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Video of the Day
Swearing-in for the Administrator of CMS


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Today’s Hill Action
Senate Floor Schedule
The Senate reconvenes at 9:30 a.m. and is expected to resume consideration of the nomination of Dan Coats, of Indiana, to be director of national intelligence. The chamber is expected to take a cloture vote on the nomination at 10 a.m.
Nominations: Dan Coats, of Indiana, to be director of national intelligence.
Committee Hearings
10:00 a.m.: National Flood Insurance Program Reauthorization
10:00 a.m.: Improving Energy Infrastructure
10:00 a.m.: Marines United Website/Social Media Misconduct
1:30 p.m.: Intelligence Matters
2:00 p.m.: Lighthizer Nomination
2:00 p.m.: Arlington National Cemetery
2:30 p.m.: Improving Truck Safety
2:30 p.m.: Intelligence Matters
House Floor Schedule
The House reconvenes at 4:30 p.m. for legislative business and is expected to consider measures under suspension of the rules. Roll call votes will be postponed until 6:30 p.m.
HR 132 – Arbuckle Project Maintenance Complex and District Office Conveyance Act
HR 648 – A bill to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to amend the Definite Plan Report for the Seedskadee Project to enable the use of the active capacity of the Fontenelle Reservoir.
HR 267 – Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park Act
Committee Hearings
5:00 p.m.: VA Reform Legislation
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Trump Takes Working-Class Hero Tour to Detroit’s Divided Union
President Donald Trump is returning to one of American labor’s last remaining strongholds with a message that could drive a wedge between long Democratic-leaning union leadership and members that are breaking ranks.Trump will court United Auto Workers members in their backyard Wednesday, pledging to reopen a review of auto industry fuel economy standards.

The president’s claims he’s lifting regulations that hinders jobs risks dividing rank-and-file union workers — who backed the Republican at rates last achieved by Ronald Reagan — against UAW leadership that worked with the Obama administration on the rules and has stood by them. After criticizing union wages as too rich on the campaign trail, Trump invited labor groups to the White House within days of his arrival, withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and pledged to renegotiate Nafta.

Those actions resonate with many working-class voters and position the billionaire president as a Republican with a shot at breaking Democrats’ hold on the UAW and the wider labor movement.

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GOP Obamacare Plan Suffers Blow With Rejection by Key Republican
House GOP leadership’s ObamaCare repeal proposal is “mortally wounded,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday. “It is mortally wounded. I don’t know if has died yet,” Graham told NBC’s “Today.”

He warned the GOP that it’s running out of time to repeal and replace ObamaCare.”This is the last best chance for Republicans to pass healthcare by themselves, and screw it up. Here is what I hope the president would do: Try to get a good bill. If you can’t, let ObamaCare collapse and challenge the Democrats to help him fix the problem they created,” he said.

Graham compared the GOP’s bill to when the Obama administration pushed for votes on ObamaCare in 2010 before the bill was ready.
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U.S. May Soon Increase Pressure on China to Constrain North Korea

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will warn China’s leaders that the United States is prepared to step up missile defenses and pressure on Chinese financial institutions if they fail to use their influence to restrain North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs, according to several officials involved in planning his first mission to Asia.

China has complained vociferously about the Trump administration’s recent decision to speed up the deployment of the Thaad antimissile system in South Korea, charging that it will undermine regional stability.

But the Trump administration’s message is that the United States has run out of time to respond to North Korea’s military advances, and that the party the Chinese needs to complain to is in Pyongyang.
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Until tomorrow,
Lobbyit.com
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