This was a vote on an amendment by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) that would have required the Health and Human Services Department to post on its website the amount of funding that would be cut from state-based health care “exchanges” (regulated marketplaces in which the uninsured could purchase subsidized health insurance) as a result of eliminating federal funds for those exchanges. This amendment was offered to legislation repealing a provision of a major health care reform law that provided federal funds to states for health care exchanges.

Jackson Lee urged support for her amendment: “…I would have to say that I am concerned and not supportive of this legislation and would hope that we would vote against the underlying bill.  But I have an amendment that I believe my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would appreciate, and it's very simple. This amendment will provide the public with important information about mandatory funding to states for health benefit exchanges that will no longer be available for the public and small businesses to use in order to obtain competitive health coverage for their necessary health care, post the moneys that are rescinded, and let the public judge for themselves: good health care or not.”

Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) opposed the amendment: “…The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act [the 2010 health care reform bill] provided the Secretary with an unlimited amount of money with virtually limitless discretion to spend on establishing exchanges or what activities could facilitate enrollment in what are known as qualified health plans. Giving the Secretary a blank check to spend is an abdication of our responsibility here in the House of Representatives. This blank check also makes it impossible to implement the Jackson Lee amendment. There is no dollar figure for how much the Secretary can spend on this program. It is simply an unknown. The Secretary could decide tomorrow to spend another $100 million or another $100 billion…. Congress and, for that matter, the general public won't know that until the money is spent.”

The House rejected this amendment by a vote of 177-239. Voting “yea” were 173 Democrats and 4 Republicans. 228 Republicans and 11 Democrats voted “nay.” As a result, the House rejected an amendment that would have required the Health and Human Services Department to post on its website the amount of funding that would be cut from health care “exchanges” as a result of eliminating federal funds for those exchanges.