As millions of Americans are seeing their health care premiums spike and the cost of living continue to rise, House Republicans are expected to bring to the floor a bill to redefine the word “showerhead.”
The legislation is officially named the “Saving Homeowners from Overregulation With Exceptional Rinsing Act,” or the SHOWER Act.
“If we wanted a gentle mist as our shower, we would just stand in front of a humidifier. So that’s why I introduced The Shower Act. Because no one wants to be waterboarded by a trickle at 6 AM in the morning,” the bill’s primary sponsor, U.S. Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC), said last month when defending his legislation.
According to congressional reporter Jamie Dupree, the bill is scheduled for a vote on the House floor next week.
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U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO) last month blasted the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee for prioritizing legislation on home appliances over reducing the cost of health care premiums.
“You’ve got 15 bills—six of those 15 bills are on home appliances, the so-called ‘Shower Act’—and you can’t be bothered to include your health care plan that you’ve been spending a year developing?”
Meanwhile, Republican former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy appeared to take a veiled swipe at Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday, telling C-SPAN that “Maybe Democrats won the shutdown” because Johnson effectively shuttered the House for two months rather than work on legislation to lower health care premiums.
“Republicans, having the majority, should have planned further in advance instead of the last weeks of the year to see, ‘how am I going to deal with this?’ So now they’ve kind of got a political football,” McCarthy explained.
“The House kept everybody away” during the government shutdown,” he said. “And when you only have a majority for two years, to pass a bill, you have to have a hearing, then you have to have a markup, then you’ve got to pass the building, it’s got to go the floor. You just lost two months.”
“I just think in the House,” McCarthy continued, “you have the power as the Speaker and the majority. If you give that power away, you may look at the end of the day. ‘Ooh, I gave two months. Maybe the Democrats won the shutdown of those two months.'”
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Image via Reuters