A Republican senator has announced that he is placing a hold on the president’s nominee to lead the federal agency responsible for exempting members of Congress from Obamacare, saying that her intention to force an “illegal” rule is unacceptable.
“No special provision was made” to exempt Congress, Louisiana Sen. David Vitter wrote in a Wednesday letter to his colleagues. Vitter has long threatened to stall President Obama’s nominee to lead the Office of Personnel Management, Acting Director Beth Cobert, unless Cobert promised to eliminate a rule allowing members of Congress and their staff to circumvent the individual exchange established by the Affordable Care Act. Presently, they are permitted to enroll in an exchange intended for small businesses.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2583869/
“In fact, such a federal government/employee contribution was included in other proposals which were defeated and blocked,” Vitter wrote. “When this provision was focused on after the fact, it caused significant consternation on Capitol Hill. This led to a frenzied, bipartisan lobbying effort to have the Obama Administration adopt a rule to get around this provision,” which OPM did in October 2013.
“This rule is clearly illegal,” Vitter added. “In a convoluted attempt to recreate out of thin air a federal government/employee contribution, the rule allows members and staff to enroll in the DC Small Business Exchange [and] allows members to categorize any or all of their taxpayer-funded employees as ‘non-official,’ ” allowing them to retain congressional healthcare that existed before the enactment of Obamacare.
Related Story: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2584993
“Beth Cobert has supported and executed this rule as Acting OPM Director and has indicated that she would continue to do so if confirmed,” Vitter said. “Congress, under Republican House leadership and Democratic Senate leadership when the rule was issued, also was fully complicit in this fraud. Most notably, both the House and the Senate, through unnamed staff, officially certified in writing that each body employed 45 persons in order to qualify for the DC Small Business Exchange. This is an outrageous act of fraud. And the OPM rule is patently illegal.
“I would welcome this being corrected either legislatively or administratively, and I’ve suggested numerous ways in which this can be done,” Vitter added. “In the meantime, I will maintain my hold on the nomination of Beth Cobert to become director of OPM.”
The president announced his nomination of Cobert in November. The post has gone without a permanent occupant since previous OPM Director Katherine Archuleta resigned in July amid accusations that lax cybersecurity had allowed a massive breach of the agency to take place.
Overcoming Vitter’s hold would require Republican leaders in the Senate to stage a filibuster vote, a move that seems unlikely in the months preceding the November elections.
