The office of House speaker John Boehner announces it's kicking off the new Congress with a series of jobs bills.
The press release reads:
House Republicans have pledged to continue making the American people’s priorities – jobs and the economy – our priorities and are wasting no time getting started, kicking off the first week of the new American Congress with action on three bipartisan jobs bills. Here’s a look at what they are, and how they’ll help more Americans find work: Hire More Heroes Act: The president’s health care law “is prompting many” small businesses “to hold off on hiring and even to shed jobs in some cases,” CNBCreports. The Hire More Heroes Act will help by exempting veterans who are “already enrolled in healthcare plans through the Department of Defense or the VA from being counted toward the employee limit under the health care law,” the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL), explained in this week’s Republican Address. “So not only are we providing small businesses – and our economy – with much-needed relief, but we’re also helping more of our veterans find work.” Save American Workers Act: Thousands of workers have seen their hours and wages slashed thanks to ObamaCare’s employer mandate that forces businesses to hold hours down to 30 per week or face a penalty. Women and low-income workers are particularly hard hit by the mandate, according to an analysis by the Hoover Institution, which found that the 30-hour rule puts 2.6 million Americans earning less than $30,000 a year - 63% of whom are women – at risk of having their hours and their wages cut. The Save American Workers Act restores the traditional 40-hour work week to protect these workers and help our economy grow. Approving the Keystone Pipeline: President Obama has stood in the way of thewidely-popular Keystone pipeline for more than six years, putting his own political interests ahead of thousands of jobs and increased energy security for the American people. The House will once again act where the president has not and approve the Keystone pipeline, keeping the pressure on the White House to finally move forward with what one labor union calls a “lifeline” for American workers. This week’s slate of jobs bills fulfills the commitment Speaker Boehner and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made in an op-ed shortly after last year’s election to move quickly on these proposals, all of which passed the House with bipartisan support only to be held up in the then-Democratic-controlled Senate. As Boehner and McConnell noted, these bills represent “an obvious and potentially bipartisan starting point for the new Congress—and, for President Obama, a chance to begin the final years of his presidency by taking some steps toward a stronger economy.”