Republicans target Obamacare in first wave of bills for the 114th Congress

House Republicans are planning to call up legislation that would change two key parts of Obamacare that both Republicans and Democrats have said need to be fixed.

Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) said over the weekend that one of these bills would be one he introduced last year — the Hire More Heroes Act. That bill would tweak Obamacare to make it more affordable for companies to hire veterans under the law.

House Republicans are readying two bills that would tweak Obamacare. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

Obamacare requires companies to provide health insurance to their workers once they have more than 50 employees. But Davis and many other members agree that veterans who are already covered by a health care plan through the Departments of Defense or Veterans Affairs should not have to count against that total.

Davis's bill would let companies not count veterans who already get health plans through the government, which would let them hire veterans without any fear of crossing the 50-employee threshold.

"What this bill does: it makes a commonsense change to the president's health care law that will encourage small businesses to hire more of our nation’s veterans," Davis said over the weekend.

The legislation is a no-brainer in the House — it passed last year 406-1. But it died in the Senate after Democrats insisted that it would only consider the bill if they could also quickly pass several tax-related bills, without consideration of any amendments.

Davis said another bill that would come up in the coming days would be one to eliminate Obamacare's 30-hour workweek. As currently written, the law says full-time workers must receive Obamacare, and it defines full-time as anyone working 30 hours per week.

Republicans have said this language gives companies an incentive to cut worker hours to less than 30 a week. Some Democrats agree, and last year, the House approved a similar bill 248-179.

While Davis didn't mention a bill to fully repeal Obamacare, Republicans have indicated that another repeal vote is likely early this year.

On other issues, Davis said the House would also consider a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. A House aide told TheBlaze that the Keystone bill would come up later this week.