PPACA: The Defunding Fight is On

By Arthur D. Postal

February 09, 2011 at 07:00 PM

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WASHINGTON BUREAU — The House will likely vote to defund implementation of the Affordable Care Act when it takes up appropriations legislation next week, according to House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

"I expect to see one way or the other the product coming out of the House to speak to [funding of the implementation of the healthcare law] and to preclude any funding to be used lightning for that," Cantor, R-Va., told reporters Tuesday.

The Affordable Care Act is the legislative package that includes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

House approval of the Affordable Care Act defunding legislation would likely lead to a confrontation with the Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats.

In related news, the House Ways and Means Committee plans to hold a hearing at 10 a.m. Feb. 16 on the Obama administration's fiscal year 2012 budget proposal for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

The sole witness will be HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, committee officials say.

"This hearing will give us an opportunity to examine the Democrats' new health care law, its implementation, and the resulting cost increases and market disruptions already being felt across the country," Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., says in a statement about the hearing.

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