This was a vote on an amendment by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) prohibiting federal funds from being used by any federal employee to implement or enforce a major health care reform law enacted in 2010. This amendment was offered to a continuing resolution funding the federal government through September 2011, and cutting $61 billion in federal funding for many government programs.

(The healthcare reform measure that Republicans sought to derail was strongly supported by President Obama, and he signed it into law in March 2010. The law imposed a requirement that most Americans have health insurance, and was estimated to expand insurance coverage to 95% of the U.S. population. Employers with more than 50 workers were required to provide health insurance for their employees. The measure added 15 million people to the Medicaid rolls, and subsidized the purchase of private health insurance coverage for low- and middle-income people. In addition, the health care law imposed a 40% tax on high-cost insurance plans -- or those plans that are worth more than $27,500 for families, and $10,200 for individuals.)

This was the second of three similar amendments intended to prohibit federal funds from being used to implement the landmark health care reform law described above. While the first amendment specifically prohibited the Health and Human Services Department from using federal funds to implement the law, this amendment imposed this prohibition on all federal employees. The third amendment specifically prohibited federal funding from being used to pay the salaries of federal employees charged with implementing the health care reform law.

Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) supported this amendment: “For this is the first time in the history of this country that the price of citizenship, this is the first time in the history of this country that the price of freedom, this is the first time in the history of this country that the price of being an American is that you have to buy a particular product that some unknown, faceless bureaucrat here in Washington ordains that you have to buy. We have come to the time that liberty is being taken away from us, that the strong hand of a Big Brother is reaching out and telling us you have to do this and you have to do that as the price of freedom and the price of liberty.”

Rep. Chris Murphy (D-CT) opposed the amendment: “…Poll after poll shows that Americans oppose repealing or defunding health care. The latest one says 62 percent of Americans oppose these efforts. Why? Because they have figured out that the nonsense coming from Republicans over the last several years about this being socialized medicine or a government takeover is just that--it is nonsense. What they figured out is that this is helping millions of Americans all around this country, millions of Americans like a little 8-year-old boy named Kyle McCollough who had the courage to walk into my office yesterday and tell me about his battle with hemophilia. His family has to put out $10,000 a month to pay for his medications, and repeal of this legislation means bankruptcy for his family and for him a lifetime of worrying as to whether he has a job that covers his illness or whether he has the medications to stay alive.”

The House agreed to this amendment by a vote of 241-187. All 238 Republicans present and 3 Democrats voted “yea.”. 187 Democrats voted “nay.” As a result, the House agreed to an amendment prohibiting funds provided by a continuing resolution from being used by any federal employee to implement or enforce a major health care reform law enacted in 2010.