Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump in January, there have been a couple of developments that could have a significant impact on our industry.
[gap height=”30″]Regulatory Freeze Pending Review
[gap height=”30″]On January 20, President Trump’s Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, ordered a freeze on regulations for all government agencies. Obviously, this is good news because this order will put at least a temporary hold on the two proposed tanning-related rules currently pending at the FDA (amendments to the Performance Standard and Restricted Device/Under-18 ban). However, the FDA still has a potential avenue to finalize one or both rules. The Priebus memo contains an exception for “critical” health and safety regulations, so it is possible the FDA might try to place the tanning regulations in that bucket to keep them moving forward. It is more likely that the FDA will wait until it has better direction from the new Administration.
[gap height=”10″]Then, on January 30, President Trump signed another executive order, the purpose of which is to dramatically pare back federal regulations by requiring agencies to cut two existing regulations for every new one introduced. It is far too early to tell how this will affect the FDA’s issuance of new regulations which would include the two that are pending for our industry.
[gap height=”30″]Repeal and Replacement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)
[gap height=”30″]Also on January 20, President Trump signed an Executive Order directing members of his administration to take steps that will facilitate the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act. While this is important, it doesn’t actually make any changes in the law. It is more of a policy statement reiterating the Trump Administration’s intent to repeal and replace the ACA.
[gap height=”10″]With passage of the 2018 Budget Resolution in January, the Congress set in motion the process of the actual repeal of parts of the ACA. However, this budget resolution only affects the taxing and spending parts of the ACA (which includes the Tan Tax). This is significant, because under arcane congressional budget procedures, legislation directed by the budget resolution affecting taxing and spending are not subject to delay through a filibuster and will only need a simple majority vote to pass the Senate. Other equally contentious parts of the ACA replacement will not have that luxury and will require Democrat support.
[gap height=”10″]The budget resolution set a deadline of January 27 for House and Senate committees to craft the initial parts of the repeal and replace bill. That deadline passed without the committees taking action. Also in late January, House Speaker Paul Ryan stated that lawmakers likely won’t repeal and replace Obamacare until March or April.
[gap height=”10″]While the House and Senate continue to work on legislative actions, it appears that the next step is to use administrative actions, spearheaded by Congressman Tom Price, Trump’s nominee as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, to continue to dismantle Obamacare. This will start as soon as Congressman Price’s nomination is approved by the full Senate.
[gap height=”10″]There is great hope the House and Senate tax-writing committees will repeal the ACA taxes fairly soon, but there is no guarantee. For example, a “replace” bill introduced by centrist Republicans such as Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Susan Collins of Maine want to keep Obamacare’s taxes in place. There is simply no way to tell how quickly the ACA repeal will play out, and until it does, the Tan Tax is, unfortunately, still the law of the land.
[gap height=”10″]In order for the ITA to continue protecting your interests, we need your support. Please join the ITA or renew your membership today.
