House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) made an uncommon appearance behind a lectern on the House floor Monday morning, helping kick off an infernally hot legislative week by ridiculing the Senate for not convening yesterday as the government rolls toward a potential shutdown.
With current funding law set to expire at midnight Tuesday, the House sent back to the Senate on Saturday an amended temporary spending bill that repeals Obamacare’s medical device tax and delays the law for one year. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who vowed opposition to both provisions over the weekend, declined to call the Senate into an emergency session Sunday, prompting Boehner’s criticism.
“The Senate decided not to work yesterday. Well my goodness. If there’s such an emergency, where are they?” Boehner jabbed. “It’s time for the Senate to listen to the American people, just like the House has listened to the American people, and pass a one-year delay of Obamacare and a permanent repeal of the medical device tax.”
The Senate is set to begin session at 2:00 p.m. Monday afternoon, after which it’s expected at some point that Reid will call up the House-passed bill and discard the Obamacare-related conditions.
“To be absolutely clear, the Senate will reject both the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of the medical device tax,” Reid said in a statement. “After weeks of futile political games from Republicans, we are still at square one: Republicans must decide whether to pass the Senate’s clean CR, or force a Republican government shutdown.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that the House-amended and -passed funding bill included a one-year delay of the Obamacare’s individual mandate; it in fact contained a one-year delay of the full law, not only the mandate.
