Constitutional Debate Over Federal Health Care Action
A Constitutional showdown could be on the docket if New Hampshire lawmakers pass a bill set for a full House vote. The session has been cancelled tomorrow due to snow, so the House will likely take up the bill next Wednesday.
N.H. Attorney General Michael Delaney refutes the Legislature's authority to demand that he take action against "Obamacare."
Republican-sponsored House Bill 89, which passed out of committee on a party line vote, would require the Attorney General to join some 26 other states in a lawsuit challenging the federal health care reform act passed last year. Attorney General Michael Delaney testified last month that the proposal itself was unconstitutional because the legislative branch can make laws but not tell the executive branch how to enforce them. He promised to challenge the law in court if it passes.
“We called upon our attorney general to join with other states in filing a lawsuit challenging ‘Obamacare,’ but Governor Lynch and the Democratic leadership at the time refused to join with us in standing up for the citizens of our state,” said House Majority Leader D. J. Bettencourt (R-Salem), a co-sponsor of HB 89, in a statement Monday. “I call upon my colleagues in the Legislature to support HB 89 when it comes to the floor of the House on Wednesday so that we may join the fight against expensive mandates.”
Supporters of HB 89 applauded Monday’s ruling by a Federal District Court judge in Florida that struck down federal health reform law as unconstitutional. In four federal court decisions, two have found that the law is constitutional and two other have struck down either part or all the law’s provisions on constitutional grounds.
While the majority report from the House State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs Committee urged passage of HB 89, saying it was “a concern worthy of action by the attorney general,” the dissenting minority report said the “symbolic” measure was legally irrelevant, a waste of taxpayer money and unconstitutional.
“Just as the attorney general has no constitutional authority to require the legislature to pass or defeat particular bills, the legislature has no constitutional authority to require the attorney general to mount legal challenges against particular laws,” said Rep. Theodoros Rokas (D-Manchester) “If the legislature can compel the attorney general to challenge particular laws, the traditional independence of the attorney general is compromised.”
If the law passes the House Wednesday, it would then go to the Senate. If it is approved by the Senate later this session, it faces an almost certain veto by Gov. Lynch, who in turn faces veto-proof majorities in both legislative chambers.
>> The State House plans to remain open tomorrow, Feb. 2, but the legislative sessions are called off. As of 12:30 today, the Senate has rescheduled for Thursday, Feb. 3, at noon, and the House will likely postpone to next Wednesday, Feb. 9.
This Daily Dispatch was written by Michael McCord.
Posted by Hilary Niles
on Feb 1 2011. Filed under agencies & departments, Commerce, costs, Government, Health, health care, health insurance, Weekly Briefing.
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