House Planning Round Two on Shutdown Fight

House Speaker John Boehner emerged from a GOP caucus meeting Thursday and said it was “unlikely” the House would simply pass a “clean” spending bill sent over from the Senate. On Saturday, the Senate is expected to pass a continuing resolution that sets government spending at House-approved levels through November 15 and restores funding for ObamaCare. The original House CR set spending through December 15. 

Boehner’s remarks indicate that the House will make another attempt at winning some kind of concessions on ObamaCare through the CR. House Leadership had been planning to pivot to a debate on the debt ceiling, but money conservatives want to resolve the spending issue first. 

It is unclear what the House would attach to the CR. Provisions mentioned have been a repeal of ObamaCare’s medical devices tax or an elimination of subsidies for members of Congress and their staff to purchase health insurance. Under the ObamaCare law, Congress would have had to enter the health care exchanges to purchase health insurance. The Obama Administration, after talks with Congress, conjured up a rule that exempted them from that. 

Any action by the House to amend the Senate resolution would throw the issue back at the Senate. Under that scenario, the Senate would have 1-2 days to accept the House changes. If it doesn’t, the federal government would shut down.