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White House officials said Mr. Obama is prepared to veto two bills GOP leaders plan to consider soon—one approving the Keystone XL pipeline and another changing the Affordable Care Act’s definition of a full-time worker from 30 to 40 hours a week—casting doubts over how much the president and GOP congressional leaders will be able to accomplish during the Democratic president’s final two years in office. (Peterson and Crittenden, 1/6)

The first congressional Republican attempt to weaken Obamacare with legislation boasting Democratic support appeared to be headed for troubled waters on both sides of the partisan aisle on Tuesday, only days before an expected vote. The bill, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, seeks to reduce the law's burden on companies by requiring them to offer private health coverage to full-time employees who work 40 hours a week rather than the 30 hours stipulated by President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. (Morgan, 1/6)

Business leaders are waging an all-out fight to change ObamaCare’s definition of full-time work, even as the White House threatens to veto legislation that would strike down the statute’s contentious 30-hour week. The issue, a K Street priority for years, has taken on fresh urgency with the dawn of a Republican-controlled Congress bent on chipping away at the president’s signature healthcare law. In the coming days, both the House and Senate will take action on bipartisan bills that would modify the full-time employee standard, a component of the law’s employer mandate. But corporate lobbyists now trying to build support among lawmakers will have to overcome objections from labor unions and President Obama. (Wilson, 1/7)

Under the 2010 Affordable Care Act, businesses with 50 or more employees are required to offer full-time workers insurance or face penalties. The proposed GOP bill would allow business to cover fewer of their workers by redefining full-time work to 40 hours a week. (Tau, 1/6)

The GOP bill, one of the first to get consideration in the new Congress, would redefine "full-time employee" under the ACA as someone who works at least 40 hours a week. It sounds commonsense enough — 40 hours is entrenched in American culture as the standard workweek. But studies indicate that what the GOP is trying to do will actually increase Americans' dependence on government-provided health insurance and raise the deficit. When the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office scored an identical bill last year, it found that 1 million people would be dropped from their employer-sponsored insurance, causing between 500,000 and 1 million people to turn to public insurance options, such as Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program and the ACA health insurance exchanges. (Millman, 1/6)

Now that Congress is back in Washington with a Republican majority, you can expect another symbolic Obamacare repeal vote that will be quickly quashed by the president’ veto pen. But there are a number of actual fixes to the health law and other health policies that Congress could realistically take up this year—maybe even in bipartisan fashion. (Ehley, 1/6)