Senate Vote to Repeal Fails
On February 2, the Senate rejected an amendment offered by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Minority Leader, to repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act health reform law. The language of the amendment was identical to H.R. 2, the bill passed by the House on January 19. The McConnell amendment was offered to the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill (S. 223) and failed by a party line vote of 47 to 51. Senate Republicans plan to continue the effort to repeal health care reform in whole or in part, likely advancing amendments to strike specific provisions of the law such as the individual mandate that all Americans have a health insurance policy. Amendments to eliminate unpopular parts of the law stand the best chance of attracting wavering Democrats and thus being approved. Although President Obama has stated his willingness to discuss modifying the law, he is sure to veto bills that substantially gut or repeal the law. |
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Florida Judge Rules Health Law Unconstitutional; Does Not Move to Stop Implementation
On January 31, a federal judge in Florida ruled that the portion of the health reform law requiring all individuals to have health insurance was unconstitutional. Unlike a previous judge who reached a similar decision, Judge Roger Vinson refused to sever the individual mandate from the rest of the law and instead struck down the entire health reform law. Although Judge Vinson did not issue an injunction against continuing the implementation of health reform, some states who were parties to the lawsuit have hinted that his ruling means they do not have to carry forward with their planning for implementation. However, given that the Department of Justice will appeal the ruling, the fact that Judge Vinson did not expressly call for a halt to implementation, and the fact that all the states that are parties to the lawsuit have accepted millions of dollars in federal grants for the implementation of health reform, it appears unlikely that any state would completely halt preparations for health reform. In related action, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli announced that he would seek expedite review by the Supreme Court of his state's successful litigation to block the individual coverage mandate. Such an action would bypass appellate review and put the case before the high court before the 2012 election. |
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House Releases FY 2011 Budget
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) released his new FY11 302(a) allocation for the Appropriations Committee on February 3. The budget sets non-security discretionary spending level at $420 billion, a reduction of $43 billion or 9.3 percent below the FY10 level (the current CR level). This is compared to the $100 billion proposed in the Pledge to America, and the $55-$60 billion reported by the press earlier this week. Also, Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) released the 302(b) allocations to the House appropriations subcommittees. He outlined a total cut of $74 billion and instructed each subcommittee to produce "specific, substantive and comprehensive spending cuts." Labor-HHS-Education's total allocation is $157.02 billion, a 4 percent cut from FY10 levels or $6.565 billion below the current CR. For context, this level is 10 percent or $17 billion less than what was included in the Senate FY11 omnibus. |
