Congress took a final step in repealing a portion of the health care reform law on April 5, 2011, when the Senate voted to approve legislation (H.R. 4) that will rescind a controversial tax-reporting requirement.
 

The House passed the same measure in early March 2011, and the bill will be sent to the White House, where President Barack Obama was expected to sign it into law.

The measure repeals a provision that would have required all businesses to file 1099 tax forms for transactions of $600 or more. Business leaders and advocacy groups had widely criticized the requirement and had lobbied for its repeal.

The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the 1099 provision would increase federal revenue by $17.1 billion over 10 years.

During the debate on the repeal, the president and congressional leaders in both parties stated that the cost of repealing the 1099 requirement had to be offset by spending cuts or by increasing federal revenues. The repeal proposal as passed by the House and Senate would offset the revenue loss by increasing rates that individuals or families must use to pay back federal subsidies for health care coverage. Under the health care reform law, any individual or family earning less than four times the federal poverty level will be eligible for the health coverage subsidy beginning in 2014.