News Alert. The federal government moved closer to its first shutdown in 17 years after the Republican-led House voted early Sunday to delay President Barack Obama’s health-care law by one year as part of legislation to keep the government running. The House voted 248-174 to attach a repeal of the tax on medical devices that was to help pay for the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, and then voted 231-192 to attach a delay of the implementation of the law by a year. The latter also included a provision that would allow employers and health care providers to opt out of mandatory contraception coverage. White House spokesman Jay Carney said that Republicans who voted to attach the Obamacare measures to the government spending bill were voting to shut down the government. (Read the White House’s statement..) The measure is widely seen as dead-on-arrival in the Senate. Before the House vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he will not accept changes to the health-care law in exchange for temporary government funding. President Obama promised to veto the measure in the unlikely event it reached his desk. If House Republicans and Senate Democrats cannot agree by the Tuesday-morning deadline, thousands of government employees will be unable to work. There will be one more round of votes until a government shutdown is certain. First, Reid and his fellow Democrats in the Senate are likely to vote on Monday afternoon to table the House measure. Aides said they only need 51 votes to block the bills. Democrats control 54 votes in the chamber. This will sideline conservative Republicans in the Senate led by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. House Speaker John Boehner tried to turn up the heat on Senate Democrats. In a statement, he urged them to vote on the House bill later Sunday and not wait until Monday. “If the Senate stalls until Monday afternoon instead of working today, it would be an act of breathtaking arrogance by the Senate Democratic leadership,” he said. House Republicans had a rally outside the Capitol late on Sunday criticizing the Senate for taking Sunday off. They said it showed that Democrats wanted to shut down the government. After the Senate acts, the House would then have to pass another measure to fund the government. House Republicans would again have to decide what measures to attach to the bill. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican whip, said in an interview on ‘Fox News Sunday’ that the House would send another provision to keep the government open but would likely include a “few other options” aimed at Obamacare. Experts said the end game of this stand-off was still unclear. The two sides are not talking. A government shutdown would mean the U.S. jobs report for September won’t be released on Friday. The employment data would be the last major labor-market release before the Federal Reserve meets in October to decide whether to slow monetary stimulus. Another budget deadline, over the federal debt limit, is looming over the horizon. Market experts say the debt ceiling debate is one with more potential to roil markets than a shutdown. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Congress must act to increase the $16.7 trillion debt limit by Oct. 17. Obama on Friday urged Congress to raise the debt limit before Oct. 17 and act to avert the shutdown.
Posted on: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 09:38:08 +0000
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