The new Republican Congress will be sworn in Tuesday, and a Hoosier-authored change to the federal health care law will be the first agenda item.
The House plans to vote Thursday on a bill to roll back the health care law‘s redefinition of full-time work as 30 hours a week.
Indiana Congressman Todd Young (R-9th) is co-authoring the bill for a second straight Congress. He estimates the change would cost part-time workers $75 billion in lost earnings.
And Young says the tradeoff of getting more workers insured isn't worth it. He says the Congressional Budget Office calculates the 30-hour standard would add fewer than 500,000 workers to the insurance rolls.
Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Illinois) is Young‘s co-author in the House, while Sen. Joe Donnelly (D-Indiana) authored a Senate version of the bill in the last Congress. But Young says it‘s not clear whether President Obama will sign or veto the bill. The 30-hour standard hasn‘t taken effect yet, due to the delay in the law‘s employer mandate.