A House committee agreed to strike a provision of an Obamacare bill aimed at bypassing a Senate filibuster, retaining a controversial Medicare payment board.
The House Rules Committee late Wednesday advanced a bill that would gut Obamacare and ensures a simple majority vote in the Senate through a process called budget reconciliation. The bill now goes to the House floor for a vote Friday.
The committee, however, voted to strike the part of the bill that would repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board, a panel aimed at cutting Medicare costs.
The reason is to ensure that the reconciliation package meets Senate rules. Reconciliation is a process that enables a bill to get a simple 51-vote majority in the Senate instead of the 60 needed to break a filibuster, but all measures must be related to federal spending.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2574118/
To meet the requirements, House leaders crafted the bill to repeal the taxes and mandates in the healthcare law. It also would defund Planned Parenthood, a response to the undercover videos highlighting the harvesting of fetal body parts at the women’s health and abortion provider.
But the repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board appeared to not meet that criteria, according to Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., chairman of the House Budget Committee that put together the final package.
“It is important for all of us to remember that reconciliation is a powerful tool but a limited budgetary tool,” Price told the committee.
The panel has been a major target for Republicans since it was created under Obamacare. Lawmakers believe it takes away Congress’ ability to oversee Medicare’s costs and leaves it with bureaucrats.
Democrats have long objected to the bill as a waste of time and completely political.
“To try to portray what we are doing here is serious and on the level is a stretch,” said Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
Republicans countered that it was a necessary move to get repeal of the law to President Obama’s desk.
“Because of the nature of reconciliation we would like to do the best we can do to put this on the president’s desk to let him earn his paycheck for the day,” said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, chairman of the committee.
