Ever since the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 was made law, there have been those in Congress trying to figure out how to get rid of it. The House amendment to the Senate bill – the one that actually counted – just squeaked by with a final vote of 219-212 just two days before the President signed the bill on March 23, 2010. Those numbers made the law feel vulnerable. But was it really?
Despite a number of efforts in the first year, mounting a real challenge to repeal the law on its face proved impossible.
It became clear that those who opposed the law were going to have to try a different tack. If the law couldn’t be overturned by the legislature, perhaps it could be killed by the judiciary. The matter went to the Supreme Court and on June 28, 2012, most of the law sustained a constitutional challenge (the Medicaid expansion was ruled to be overreaching).
For critics, that meant back to the drawing board. And then, inspiration: if the bill couldn’t be repealed in the legislature or killed by the judiciary, maybe it could be stopped in its tracks by the executive branch. That might seem unlikely at first since President Obama was a primary supporter of health care reform: the moniker “Obamacare” is synonymous with the health care law. But the executive branch is more than just the White House: it also includes agencies such as the Treasury. The Internal Revenue Service, as part of the Treasury, is charged with carrying out parts of the health care act. If the Treasury couldn’t act, well, then… success.
With that, on May 16, 2013, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), introduced H.R. 2009, referred to as the Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013. The purpose of the bill is simple: To prohibit the Secretary of the Treasury from enforcing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.
And what better time than now when the IRS is facing increased scrutiny and criticisms? Yup. The text of the bill states that the recent IRS tax-exempt organization scandal “raises pertinent questions about the agency’s ability to implement and oversee” the law and “could be an indication of future Internal Revenue Service abuses…” As a result, the bill demands that the Treasury not enforce the health care act.
Beyond the politics, is there authority to push the bill forward? Rep. Price says yes, citing Clause 3 of Section 8, Article I of the Constitution because the law “exceeds the authority vested in Congress by the Constitution.” The bill, according to the Price, also “removes government intrusion into the doctor-patient relationship” which he claims is protected by the Ninth and Tenth Amendments.
You can read the entire text of the bill here (downloads as a pdf). Don’t worry – it’s short. Even with the section titles, it clocks in at fewer than 200 words.
The bill has now attracted 141 co-sponsors, including three Representatives who signed on just yesterday: Rep. Paul Cook (R-CA), Rep. Diane Black (R-TN), and Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS). A nearly identical bill, S.1315, was introduced by Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) and currently sits on the Senate Legislative Calendar.
So why bring all of this up now? Because we may well be hearing more about the bill very soon. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Majority Leader (R-VA) indicated last Friday that this bill would be considered this week as part of #StopGovtAbuse Week (the hashtag is for twitter), an initiative by House Republicans to “restrain runaway government and re-empower citizens.”
According to the calendar, H.R. 2009 will be taken up on Friday, August 2. Govtrack.us gives the bill a 1% chance of being enacted.
