House Democrats are attempting to slow the Obamacare repeal process at the committee level after the Senate passed the first step to reversing the law, according to a letter submitted to three committees on Thursday.
Top Democrats on the House Ways and Means, Education and Workforce, and Energy and Commerce committees submitted letters to their Republican chairmen calling on them to organize hearings on the "impact of repealing the Affordable Care Act through budget reconciliation." The measure is aimed at slowing the process of repeal after the Senate voted 51-48 to pass a budget resolution that would strike down the law on Thursday.
"Given the dramatic and unprecedented nature of the changes the Republicans are proposing, namely taking insurance and financial security away from millions of Americans, we ask that regular order be followed," the letter says. "The public deserves thorough and complete information on how working families will fare compared to today if the law is repealed."
House Speaker Paul Ryan (D., Wisc.) said that the Republican Party, which holds a healthy majority in the House and a narrow 52-48 majority in the Senate, would use the budget reconciliation process to repeal Obamacare.
Reconciliation allows a simple majority of senators to pass certain forms of budgetary legislation, rather than 60 senators needed to break a filibuster. Democrats used the same process to make critical amendments to Obamacare on a party-line vote in 2010, but the letter said that process featured "79 committee hearings" on various versions of the bills that became the Affordable Care Act.
Republican leadership on all three of the House committees said that they remain committed to using the reconciliation process.
Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, issued a press release after the Senate vote saying that immediate repeal would provide citizens with "relief from the president's failed health care law." She reiterated her support in a statement and called on Democrats to assist in replacing the "fatally-flawed heath care law that has led to higher costs and fewer choices."
"We are following through on our promise to repeal Obamacare and provide a stable transition to patient-centered health care," she said. "It's my hope that our Democrat colleagues will work with us to turn the page on the failed status quo and provide the relief families and small businesses deserve."
An Energy and Commerce aide told the Washington Free Beacon that her office had received the Democrats' letter, but that the chairman, Rep. Greg Walden (R., Ore.), "plans to move forward in accordance with the budget reconciliation to give struggling patients and hard-working families the relief they're asking for."
The chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Tx.) said he supported reconciliation on Hugh Hewitt's radio show on Wednesday. A committee staffer said that he has yet to see the letter, but that he remains committed to reconciliation.
The repeal bill is expected to reach the White House in February, just weeks after Republican Donald Trump is sworn in as president. He pledged to sign repeal legislation as one of his first acts as president.