GOP eyes health law repeal with ’16 victory

Party mulls budget strategy to bypass Democrat filibuster.

Republicans in Congress are exploring a way to enact a repeal of the Affordable Care Act and other parts of their agenda soon after a new Republican president takes the oath of office in 2017.

Several Republicans said they’re discussing the possibility of adopting a budget this year that would let the next president’s agenda — including top goals like repealing the health law — bypass a Democratic filibuster at the very start of the year. Republicans used a similar move early this year to send a bill repealing much of the health law they nicknamed “Obamacare” and defunding Planned Parenthood to President Barack Obama, who vetoed it.

The strategy would allow Republicans, who control the House, and Senate to put just such a bill on the desk of a new president if their party wins the White House, without having to grind through months of budget process. To succeed, Republicans need the Senate parliamentarian to let them use rules set by a budget resolution into the next Congress.

“It could be pretty powerful if it works,” said John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Senate Republican. “We haven’t yet concluded one way or the other.”

Such a strategy “might pass muster,” said Bill Hoagland, a vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former Republican congressional aide.

Legislation generally expires at the end of a Congress. Yet rules set by a budget resolution remain in force until a new one is adopted, meaning that a resolution enacted by the current Congress may allow a filibuster-free vote early next year on a new Republican president’s economic agenda, Hoagland said. “I think it might be an open question,” he said in an interview.

“What unified us this last year on the budget was the ability to vote to defund Planned Parenthood and Obamacare with 51 votes,” Cornyn said. “So if we find a similar unifying theme, then I think that does provide us with an opportunity and that’s what we’re exploring. We haven’t settled on anything yet.”

This Congress would first have to enact a budget resolution, something that is optional because lawmakers and the White House agreed to a twoyear deal that raised spending caps last year.

Instead, Congress could skip the budget process and just move ahead with spending bills, which are a top priority of Republican leaders this year. A number of senators are urging that path because there already is a bipartisan agreement on the overall budget amount. A group of Republican conservatives, though, want to cut spending below that level.

Going forward with a budget this year has another downside for Senate Republicans, because it would require many of their vulnerable incumbents to vote on politically charged amendments.