Sessions Warns That HHS Risk Corridor Payments Under Obamacare Would Be Illegal

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget Committee, issued the following statement today regarding the letter he and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) sent to new Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell:

“It is plain that under current law, the Obama Administration does not have the ability to divert money from programs that Congress has funded to one that it has not. Congress alone was given the power of the purse—the power to appropriate funds. Yet again, the Administration is circumventing Congress and seeking to write its own laws. We will pursue this matter vigorously, and expect answers.”

BACKGROUND:

• To read the Ranking Member and Chairman’s letter, please click here.
• To view an analysis that the Congressional Research Service prepared for the Senate Budget Committee, in which the research agency confirms that HHS does not have the authority to make these risk corridor payments absent additional appropriation from Congress, please click here.

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