Medical Device Tax: Rep. Charlie Dent puts repeal at top of GOPs priority list for 2015 (MassDevice)
Pennsylvania Republican Charlie Dent, who will serve as chairman of the House Ethics Committee in the next Congress, says GOP should focus on repealing the medical device tax immediately.
Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) says repealing the 2.3% medical device excise tax should be 1 of the GOP’s top priorities after it assumes control of both houses of Congress next month.
Dent told a local television news station that repealing the medical device tax along with building the Keystone Pipeline and restoring a 40-hour work week were all major priorities for the GOP-led legislature.
“Those are 3 issues that will likely go to the president quickly, that enjoy bi-partisan support in the House and Senate and the president is going to have to make a decision,” he said.
Dent, who is slated to serve as chairman of the House Ethics Committee in the next Congress, is a longtime opponent of the device tax, which was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act.
Last January, Dent included a repeal measure in a jobs bill he introduced alongside measures to restore emergency unemployment benefits. In 2013, he led a coalition of 20 moderate House members with Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) on a compromise bill end a government shutdown that would have included repealing the tax and paying for it by making changes to pension fund rules
The device tax fight is expected to heat up rather quickly in the next legislative session starting Jan. 6, 2015. Incoming Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act and its 2.3% medical device tax could come as soon as next month.