WASHINGTON – Today, at the same time that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its annual budget projections and found that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is unaffordable and unworkable for the American people, the House Ways and Means Committee favorably reported two provisions out of Committee, H.R. 2575 the Save American Workers Act and H.R. 3685, the Protecting Firefighters & Emergency Responders Act.  After the markup and reviewing the report, Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (KS-02) released the following statement:

“I cannot emphasize this enough: over the next 10 years, the President’s health care law will cost American taxpayers 2 trillion dollars, reduce the full-time workforce by 2.5 million Americans, and enroll fewer Americans in Obamacare than was previously projected. While the President continues to ignore this issue by saying ‘Now it’s working the way it’s supposed to,’ we are working to find solutions to protect folks from the harmful impacts of this law.

“Today we took action on  two failed provisions of ObamaCare – by repealing the 30 hour a week requirement and protecting volunteer firefighters and emergency responders from the employer mandate tax.  When employees are already struggling, they can’t afford to have their hours or wages cut any further.  

“Americans deserve better and I am eager to see this legislation move forward. We must do the right thing for American workers and give them certainty that their take-home-pay will not suffer as a result of broken promises from this devastating law.”

Congresswoman Jenkins delivered remarks during last week’s hearing regarding the employer mandate vote today. Beginning in 2015, the Employer Mandate under the ACA requires employers with more than 50 full-time employees to offer health insurance or pay punitive tax penalties. The ACA changed the definition of a full-time employee from the traditional 40 hours, to anyone working 30 hours a week or more. Watch the Congresswoman’s remarks, here.

Earlier this month , Congresswoman Jenkins spoke on the House Floor regarding her support for H.R. 3685, the Protecting Volunteer Firefighters & Emergency Responders Act.  Watch the Congresswoman’s remarks, here.

Today, the CBO released their 2014 Budget and Economic Outlook that revealed mandatory spending under the ACA will be over $2 trillion over the next 10 years.  It also noted that the number of full time employees in America will shrink by 2.5 million Americans over the next 10 years.

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