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Racing the calendar, Senate leaders are pushing toward congressional approval of a bipartisan compromise that reshapes how Medicare pays physicians as lawmakers return from a spring break tangled up in domestic and foreign policy disputes. ... The Medicare doctors' legislation presents Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., with his most pressing problem. The $214 billion package would permanently retool how Medicare reimburses physicians and it also would provide money for children's health, community health centers, low-income patients and rural hospitals. ... The Senate returns to work Monday, which gives leaders two days to finish the bill or risk fielding complaints from physicians and seniors. Doctors say payment cuts make them less likely to treat patients of Medicare, which helps the elderly pay medical bills. McConnell's biggest problem is that senators from both parties are clamoring to amend the legislation. (Fram, 4/11)

Doing nothing could work where doing something falls short. House Republicans have voted over and over to repeal President Barack Obama's health law, to no avail. Democrats in the Senate still stand in the way, and ultimately there is Obama's veto power. But what Congress hasn't done is putting the law in jeopardy now. The Supreme Court is considering a challenge that centers on interpretation of one confusing phrase in the giant law — a few words that the Republican-led Congress could easily have clarified, but won't. The Supreme Court's decision, expected by late June, has the potential to gut the law. Still, doing nothing is often politically risky. (4/12)

Senators return this week to a familiar fight over abortion and Loretta Lynch’s long-stalled confirmation to be attorney general — and the partisan gridlock shows no signs of easing. Both sides are confident they have the upper hand politically, and neither party wants to relent in a fight over abortion ahead of the 2016 election. (Kim and Everett, 4/13)