Congress has used H.R. 2775 — a public exchange user income verification bill — as the vehicle for keeping the U.S. government open and giving it the ability to continue to borrow money.
The Senate voted 81-18 Wednesday to pass the operations budget and debt ceiling increase bill, which is now known as the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2014.
The House passed the bill by a 285-144 vote in the evening.
President Obama signed the bill into law a few hours later.
Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., introduced the bill back in July. When Black introduced the bill, her intent was to have the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary certify that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchanges are verifying individual users' income before giving them PPACA health insurance purchase tax credit subsidies and other subsidies.
Black's original income verification provision is now in the middle of the full text of the bill.