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 This week Republican Denny Rehberg put up an amendment to the pending House bill to fund the final seven months of the yearly budget and prohibit administration from using any of the money to put the health-care law into effect. His proposal is likely to make it into the House budget bill. However, Rehberg's bill faces two obstacles: the Democrats control of the Senate and the White House and that most of the funds needed for the law were put into the law itself. The only way to have access to those funds is for Congress to enact legislation rescinding them, which will be hard to do since the Republicans currently only have majority in the House. Therefore, Republican House members are putting wording in the budget bills stating that none of Congress’ operating costs for federal agencies can go toward the health-care law. The money in question is not actually for the law itself, but the administration costs needed to carry it out. If the spending bills are adopted, they could cause these processes to stop. Richard Sorian, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services uses the example "Even though the funds for seniors’ checks are not affected, the salary of the person mailing it out is."
Another way Republicans are hoping to halt the health-care law is by cutting off funding to the Internal Revenue Service. This week, Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers introduced an amendment to the spending bill preventing agency’s from paying IRS employees working to implement the health-care reform law’s individual and employer mandates. She also offered an additional bill blocking the IRS from hiring anyone to enforce the requirement that all individuals buy health insurance beginning in 2014. Also this week the IRS released their budget request of $118.8 million in 2012 to implement the employer and individual insurance mandates, as well as the other provisions. The health-care reform law will be a huge undertaking by the IRS and represents the largest set of tax law changes in two decades.
Most believe these bills are likely to die out in the Senate or have a presidential veto; however, Congress must agree on a budget bill before March 4th when the current funding will expire. Otherwise, there is a threat of government shutdown if no agreement can be made. However, McMorris Rodgers assures "We’re going to do everything we can to work with the Senate to avoid that."
What do you think of the efforts by the Republicans to defund the health-care law? Do you think they will be successful? Do you think Congress will be able to come to an agreement by their deadline of March 4, 2011?
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Sources: KHN, The Washington Post, The Hill
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