WASHINGTON - Arkansas’ two U.S. senators wouldn’t say Friday whether they plan to join the state’s House delegation and vote for legislation that temporarily funds the federal government but cuts off money for the federal health-care law.
The U.S. House passed the legislation, known as a continuing resolution, by a 230-189 vote Friday, with Arkansas’ four Republican Representatives voting for it.
President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders in the U.S. Senate said they will not accept legislation that cuts off funding for the health-care overhaul, causing concern that a compromise won’t be reached and much of the federal government will shut down at the beginning of the federal fiscal year Oct. 1. The House has voted 42 times to delay or stop funding the law.
The resolution is not a budget that gives agencies authority to spend. It allows government to continue spending at current levels for 75 days.
U.S. Sen. John Boozman, a Republican from Rogers, said Senate Democrats, who control the chamber, have many options.
“I don’t know how I’m going to vote because I don’t exactly know what the bill is going to be,” Boozman said.
Democrats could choose to use a different resolution, change the bill so it does fund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or choose to fund the government at a higher amount than was set in the Budget Control Act of 2011.
Inability to live up to the act’s spending limits has led to across-the-board cuts called sequestration.
Boozman said he is concerned that more automatic cuts will be triggered if Congress passes a resolution funding government more than $967 billion, the amount dictated in the Budget Control Act.
He wouldn’t say whether he would be more likely to support a resolution with or without the health-care funding.
Boozman said that while he wants to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, he doesn’t want government to shut down because Democrats and Republicans are at an impasse.
“Essentially you are holding the American people hostage by doing that,” he said, pointing not only to furloughed federal workers but the hold on small-business loans or contractors not able to complete work because there is no one to inspect them.
U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor’s office released nearly the same statement sent to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Wednesday, which called the House vote irresponsible.
“Next week, when the real work begins in the Senate, I will work in a constructive way to keep the government open and keep our economy growing,” the statement reads.
A spokesman said the senator, a Democrat from Little Rock, had nothing to add to his original statement and would not be available to speak with the newspaper.
On Friday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., called out Pryor and Democrats from six other states who are considered vulnerable in their re-election bids and asked them to vote for the resolution.
Pryor’s 2014 opponent, U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton, a Republican from Dardanelle, urged the Senate in a statement to “act responsibly and pass this legislation.”
U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, a Republican from Jonesboro, said in a statement that “the House has now done its part to represent the will of the American people by stopping any further implementation of Obamacare.”
U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, a Republican from Rogers,urged Republican Senators to “hold the line.”
U.S. Rep. Tim Griffin, a Republican from Little Rock, pointed to a rule attached to the resolution that would halt funding for the Affordable Care Act until Congress took action.
“President Obama’s health care law is a train wreck that is already raising health care costs and lowering wages for thousands of hardworking families,” he said in a statement.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee targeted Griffin’s vote in a news release. Griffin does not have an opponent in 2014.
“Griffin voted to give in to Tea Party demands and shut down the U.S. government, all so that he could take away critical patient protections and give insurance companies free rein to raise health care costs,” it states.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 09/21/2013