Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters yesterday that lawmakers would vote this week on a continuing resolution that keeps sequestration cuts in place and defunds the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare, even though Senate leadership has made clear it would not support such a measure.
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| photo courtesy Rep. Duncan Hunter |
But just prior to that announcement, there was hope that the CR the House would send to the Senate might exempt the Defense Department from sequestration. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) said House Republicans were considering two separate approaches, a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government at this year’s spending levels for a few months, or a long-term CR to fund the government for a full year at the old spending levels.
“If we do a long-term CR, that means that sequester is built in to the CR that goes for one year from the end of this month,” Hunter said in a speech at the Concerned Veterans for America “Defend and Reform” breakfast series. “If you do a short-term CR, it allows DoD to get out from under sequester, because you could do a short-term CR and we might be able to battle something out with the Senate where the sequester goes away, at least for DoD, in exchange for, name it.”
Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, added after his speech, “You have quite a few people on the Armed Services Committee–I’m not one of them yet–but you have quite a few people in the Armed Services Committee who will not vote for a CR if it includes sequester for DoD.”
He said support for protecting defense spending is coming from both House leadership and from HASC members, but the desire to defund ObamaCare seems to have won out against shielding defense spending from cuts.
“The president has signed seven bills over the last two and a half years to make changes to ObamaCare, and I sincerely hope our friends in the Senate have plans to make this an eighth time,” Boehner said, adding that it was now in the hands of Senate Republicans to push the legislation through.