House Republicans on Tuesday failed to override President Barack Obama’s veto of their bill gutting major pieces of Obamacare.
The House voted 241-186, falling short of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto of legislation the GOP views as its blueprint for undoing the law should a Republican win the White House. Republican lawmakers said their doomed repeal bill fulfilled a promise to their base to continue their fight against the health law.
«Regardless of the outcome, we have now shown there is a clear path to full repeal without 60 votes in the Senate,» Speaker Paul Ryan said Monday ahead of the vote. «It is also just one in a number of steps we’re taking to hold President Obama accountable for the failures of this law.»
Ryan has vowed that House Republicans will offer an Obamacare alternative this year — a promise that GOP leadership has made but failed to deliver on for six years since the law passed.
Congress in January approved the Obamacare repeal measure through a fast-track budget tool known as reconciliation. It was the first major repeal bill to arrive at the president’s desk for a veto.
The bill repealed Medicaid expansion, subsidies to purchase insurance on the law’s exchange, and effectively rolled back the law’s individual and employer mandates. It also eliminated the law’s medical device and Cadillac taxes and blocked federal funding to Planned Parenthood for one year.
Three Republicans, Robert Dold of Illinois and Richard Hanna and John Katko, both of New York, voted to let the president’s veto stand.
The vote came two days after Obamacare’s third enrollment period wrapped up. The administration on Tuesday chided Republicans for holding another repeal vote.
“It’s almost like it’s Groundhog Day,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest quipped at his daily press briefing.
By Brianna Ehley
Politico February, 2 1026
