House GOP Ties Government Funding to Health Law

Boehner, Republican Leaders Press Plans to Tie Priorities With Derailing Obamacare.

House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio), under pressure from conservatives, said Wednesday that the House would vote on legislation that would link essential funding to keep the government open this fall with a cut-off of funding for the president’s signature health-care law.

Republican leaders also said that the House, as early as next week, would pass a needed increase in the federal debt limit that would be linked to a delay in the health-care law, known as Obamacare, and other conservative priorities including an opening gambit on overhauling the tax code.

House GOP leaders acknowledged that it is unlikely their measures will sail through the Democratic-controlled Senate. It is likely that anti-Obamacare provisions will be stripped out and the short-term funding measure would be sent back to the House.

The GOP decision makes it harder to predict how Congress will come to an agreement on a bill to finance the government after Oct. 1, when the new fiscal year begins, and avoid a government shutdown.

The two-track plan marks a shift from an early Republican strategy designed to have a less-contentious path to passing an extension of government funding. But a significant faction of conservatives on and off Capitol Hill objected and demanded a fight over funding the health-care law as part of the deal to keep the government operating.

“We’re going to continue to do everything we can to repeal the president’s failed Obamacare” law, said Mr. Boehner.

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