Cruz aims to defund, Vela eyes changes to ACA

Source: The Brownsville Herald, TexasSept.存倉 25--At 1:41 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took to the Senate floor in Washington, aiming to stand as long as it took to prevent progress for a House bill that funds the government past Oct. 1 while defunding the Affordable Care Act.Although Cruz wants the Act, often referred to as Obamacare, to be defunded, he began a marathon talking session in the nation's upper house to prevent Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, from amending the bill to fund the health care law and pass the resolution by a simple majority vote.Cruz' efforts could be in vain, however, as lawmakers will vote even if Cruz keeps the Senate in session overnight. Delaying tactics could push a final vote into the weekend, just days before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1.That prospect concerns Republicans who would like to see the House have time to make amendments ahead of the end of the fiscal year.Once altered by the Senate, the bill would be returned to the House for approval."Delaying the opportunity for the House to send something back, it seems, plays right into the hands of Senate Democrats," said Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican. "If I'm Harry (Reid), what I'd hope would happen is you wait until the very last minute to send something over to the House."The House passed last week a continuing resolution that funds the government beyond next week, but effectively ends the 3-year-old law set to go into effect with the beginning of the new fiscal year.South Texas Congressman Filemon Vela, who represents Brownsville, said Monday that while the health care law isn't perfect, defunding it isn't the solution."I think it's a mistake to defund it, but I certainly think there are a lot of changes that need to be made to make it work right," he said.Vela voted in opposition to the measure, which passed by a 230-189 vote.He was in the Rio Grande Valley on Monday for an event in collaboration with the Brownsville Chamber of Commerce to explain to members what the ACA will mean for business儲存owners.Vela said there was much uncertainty about the benefits of the health care law ahead of the opening of the exchanges, which will offer insurance policies for individuals and business owners to purchase.Certain business owners can receive tax credits for buying insurance from the exchanges, he said, but the savings won't be known until prices are determined."Individuals aren't going to know what the premiums are until the exchanges open up," he said.As for the House bill, Vela was skeptical that the measure to defund Obamacare would remain in the bill even before Cruz took to the floor in his effort to draw attention to the bill.Vela pointed out that President Barack Obama had already announced he would veto any legislation that defunded the ACA and that Reid had shown no indication that he intended to allow such an amendment to be passed back to the House.That didn't stop Cruz from asking on Monday that amendments to the House's continuing resolution to require a 60-vote majority.When Reid denied that request, Cruz drew a line in the sand for other Senate Republicans."If it is the majority leader's intent to fund Obamacare using just 51 votes, then I would submit to every Republican in this body it is our obligation to our constituents to do everything we can to prevent the majority leader from funding Obamacare with just 51 votes," he said on the floor Monday. "Any member of this body that votes for cloture on this bill will be voting to allow the majority leader to fund Obamacare on 51 votes."Cloture is a procedure that places a time limit on the debate of a bill.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Texas Senator John Cornyn, the Senate's top Republicans, have said they won't join in Cruz' effort to block the law from coming to a vote.The Associated Press contributed to this report.tjohnson@brownsvilleherald.comCopyright: ___ (c)2013 The Brownsville Herald (Brownsville, Texas) Visit The Brownsville Herald (Brownsville, Texas) at .brownsvilleherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Servicesself storage