The health care fight is not over.  President Obama is urging Congress to pass health care reform this week.  But the pending Senate-passed health care reform legislation, H.R. 3590, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, needs some modifications in order to alleviate concerns of the House of Representatives.  These changes will require passage of a second measure to "fix" H.R. 3590 to the satisfaction of the House. 

The Senate-passed H.R. 3590 contains a provision targeting only the construction industry.  A provision inserted by Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) arbitrarily singles out ailing construction businesses, excluding them from the broader small business exemption in the bill.  Construction industry businesses would get only a five employee small business exemption. The Merkley provision is particularly egregious considering every other U.S. small business would get a 50 employee exemption under the law before they are mandated to provide coverage.
 
Your message to Congress is simple:  FSPA is opposed to H.R. 3590 because of the Merkley provision, which arbitrarily singles out the construction industry for unfair treatment. 
 
CALL TO ACTION
 
·         Call your Florida U.S. Representative (see list below) and insist that they OPPOSE H.R. 3590, regardless of the procedure to pass the bill, because the Merkley unfairly targets the construction industry.  
 
·        Call Florida Senators Nelson (202-224-5274 / billnelson@senate.gov) and LeMieux (202-224-3041) and tell them to make sure that the Merkley provision is stripped out of any health care legislation.