HR 367 Hearing Protection Act of 2017

So, since I started nagging my congressman, Steve Chabot, a month or so ago, there has been an increase in cosponsors of the bill. When I started bugging the **** out of him there were 115 cosponsors. I just looked, there are now 121 cosponsors.

There are 435 members of congress, 234 Republican and 201 Democrat. Of the 121 cosponsors, 120 are Republican and 1 is a Democrat (Texas).

That means there are more than 25% of the entire congress that are cosponsors of this bill and well over 50% of the Republicans.

However...with the mayhem that is going on in congress with the healthcare fiasco, the odds of them getting to something as minor, in the overall scheme of the things, as HR 367 seems less and less likely no matter how many cosponsors the bill has...

Also, the odds are that the house has an excellent chance of flipping parties in 2018. That is the history of politics and I see no reason why it shouldn't happen in 2018.

So friends, no matter what your political leanings are, if this bill doesn't pass before 2018...it's toast and won't come up again in our generation.

There are 237 Republicans, 193 Democrats and 5 vacancies in the House.

The Bill would pass in the House, though it's unlikely to be brought up for a vote given other priorities. But it won't get a vote in the Senate anyway. A cloture vote in the Senate requires 60 votes. There are 52 Republicans,48 Dems and 2 "Independents" that caucus with Dems. There are 3 - 5 weak Republicans whose vote on HPA is not certain, so let's say we've got 49. There are only about 5 Dems in the Senate that might vote for it. That's 54 votes. Several Dems would rather not have to take a vote on it. So McConnell isn't going to take the vote up.

The only way HPA gets done is if it's taken up during comprehensive tax reform, a process likely to start in the House in May, or as a Budget Reconciliation measure that requires only a simple majority.

I've read Trump says he will sign it if it gets to his desk.

Health care or not, do not let up on the pressure, they will move when they realize that we are not going away.
Ole Jack

if they do it right they could tag it on the Obama care repeal or replace bill or something like that.

We ought to just fix Obama care and have it cover hearing damage caused by guns without suppressors. Maybe that way we can get everyone to vote for it...