[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 127 (Thursday, July 27, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4455-S4456]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 430. Mr. LANKFORD submitted an amendment intended to be proposed 
to amendment SA 267 proposed by Mr. McConnell to the bill H.R. 1628, to 
provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of the concurrent 
resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2017; which was ordered to lie 
on the table; as follows:

       At the appropriate place, insert the following:

     SEC. ___. FINDINGS; SENSE OF THE SENATE.

       (a) Findings.--The Senate finds as follows:
       (1) Obamacare's employer mandate has had a devastating 
     impact on the job market in the United States since it took 
     effect in its earliest form in 2015 . Small businesses and 
     the jobs they create have been stifled by the punishing 
     consequences of this government mandate.
       (2) Under Obamacare, the employer mandate generally imposes 
     a tax penalty on employers if they have 50 or more full-time 
     equivalent employees and do not offer health insurance that 
     meets all of the standards under the law.
       (3) In 2015, the Congressional Budget Office (referred to 
     in this section as ``CBO'') found that these penalties are 
     being passed on to employees in the form of reduced wages. In 
     2016, these reduced wages equaled $2,160 per employee 
     according to CBO's estimates. This means that any company 
     that ignored the employer mandate in 2016 is likely to face 
     fines of over $2,000 per employee in 2017.
       (4) CBO expects that, by 2025, the amount of reduced wages 
     per worker will balloon to $3,500.
       (5) In addition, CBO projects that wages are being even 
     further reduced because companies cannot deduct the penalty 
     as an expense, on account of Obamacare. To compensate for 
     paying business taxes on higher accounting profits, companies 
     are being

[[Page S4456]]

     forced to reduce wages by more than the amount of the penalty 
     payments.
       (6) CBO estimates that the penalty represents a 7 percent 
     increase in the tax rate of employees at firms that are 
     subject to the employer mandate penalty.
       (7) In addition, Obamacare's employer mandate requires that 
     all businesses with at least 50 full-time equivalents provide 
     their full-time workers with health insurance coverage that 
     satisfies the law's requirements. Employers who fail to offer 
     coverage that satisfies the employer mandate are subject to 
     the penalties.
       (8) In 2015, CBO found that defining full-time employment 
     as a 40-hour week rather than a 30-hour week would alleviate 
     $45,000,000,000 in tax penalties on employers over the 
     following decade.
       (9) The employer mandate penalty creates incentives for 
     businesses to reduce their hiring or shift their workforce 
     toward part-time jobs.
       (10) These stark realities are playing out all across the 
     country as businesses are now well into year 2 of mandatory 
     compliance with this onerous mandate and its negative effect 
     on jobs.
       (b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate 
     that the committee of jurisdiction of the Senate should 
     review--
       (1) the economic impact that Obamacare's employer mandate 
     and redefinition of full-time employment as a 30-hour work 
     week has had on businesses, employee wages, and the job 
     market as a whole; and
       (2) the effect on the job market, if Congress were to enact 
     policy to restore the 40-hour work week definition, and 
     eliminate the current 30-hour definition that is purely 
     arbitrary and serves as a damaging barrier to more hours and 
     better pay for American workers.
                                 ______