On Wednesday, the Senate voted on an amendment offered by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to the most recent minibus, H.R. 6147, that would have prohibited the use of funds to carry out the individual health insurance mandate recently passed by D.C. Council. Noncompliance with D.C.’s individual mandate could result in the seizure of private property.

The Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Labor, and the Department of the Treasury have released a final rule that expands short-term, limited-duration health insurance plans. The rule, which will be published on Friday and take effect in 60 days, will expand these plans to 12 months from three months and allow renewability for up to 36 months.

Update: H.R. 6311 has been posted to the House Rules Committee's website. The bill is the vehicle for the Increasing Access to Lower Premium Plans and Expanding Health Savings Accounts Act. The bill now includes the text of H.R. 6313, H.R. 6306, H.R. 6309, H.R. 6314, and H.R. 5963. Although the bill still expands the eligibility for catastrophic health plans to individuals older than 30, the language that would expand ObamaCare's premium tax has been removed.

If one were to ask any grassroots conservative or libertarian activist if congressional Republicans should take another shot at ObamaCare repeal, he or she would say undoubtedly say, “Yes!” Last year’s failure to pass a health insurance reform bill made many in the grassroots community angry, and understandably so.

Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) recently rolled out a proposal to create another new entitlement program, Medicare Part E. This plan would put the federal government in direct competition with private health insurance companies by creating the so-called “public option.”

On behalf of our activist community, I urge you to contact your senators and representative and ask them to support the Repeal Insurance Plans of the Multi-State Program (RIP MSP) Act, S. 2221 and H.R. 4664, introduced by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). The bills would repeal the ObamaCare Multi-State Plan Program, which is a pathway to a public option.

The House and Senate are in session this week.