President Obama recently submitted his $3.7 trillion 2012 budget proposal, marking the start of the annual budget process. Then, the House of Representatives approved a stopgap 2011 continuing resolution with over $60 billion in discretionary spending cuts. Amendments approved would defund the landmark health law and halt funding for Planned Parenthood, the family planning organization. Three other amendments would bar federal funding for the healthcare reform law:
- An amendment from Health Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Denny Rehberg (R-MT) to block 2011 HHS funds to implement the health reform law
- Amendment from Rep. Steve King (R-IA) to block all funding for the law; and
- Amendment from Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) to bar the IRS from using funds to enforce the law’s individual mandate requirement.
President Obama has threatened to veto the GOP spending plan and Senate Democrats are working on their own short-term spending extension, which is expected to include a discretionary spending freeze.
House Speaker Boehner said in a speech this weekend “We have a moral responsibility to address the problems we face. That means working together to cut spending and rein in government — not shutting it down….This is very simple: Americans want the government to stay open, and they want it to spend less money. We don’t need to shut down the government to accomplish that.”
An alternative proposed by congressional negotiators this past weekend is to extend the budget by two more weeks which includes a $4 billion budget cut.
As a result, Congress may be on a course for a possible government shutdown when current stop-gap funding for 2011 expires on March 4, primarily because there is limited time to craft a compromise: both chambers are were out this past week for the President’s Day recess, leaving one legislative week before the deadline.
1099 Provision
In addition, the House Ways and Means Committee, by party-line vote, recently passed a bill that would pay for repeal the 1099 reporting requirement contained in the Affordable Care Act, which would require small firms to report all payments to vendors in excess of $600. The bill to repeal this provision would increase the amount of subsidies recaptured for overpayment on new health exchanges opening in 2014.
The GOP said the pay-for is similar to the most recent one-year “doc fix” approved in December, but Democrats accused the Republicans of trying to increase taxes.