Sen. Portman will vote to defund Obamacare

Gongwer is reporting that Sen. Rob Portman will vote to keep the defunding of Obamacare in the Continuing Resolution before the Senate.

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Here is their report:

U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Terrace Park) said Thursday he would vote to keep as part of the continuing resolution a provision that would defund the Affordable Care Act.

The Republican also said he planned to reintroduce as an amendment his "End Government Shutdowns Act."

The CR that would keep the government running beyond the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30 is in the hands of the Senate, having left the House not only with appropriations moving forward but with language that would strip financial support from the health care law. The Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to vote to remove the language.

"I think it's important for us to vote to repeal and replace Obamacare and defunding is the way to do it in this legislation," Sen. Portman said during a conference call with reporters. "I hope there are enough Democrat senators who are listening to their constituents and will use this opportunity to reverse a policy that's driving up costs in Ohio, hurting working families, forcing a bunch of Ohioans to lose their doctors, others to lose their jobs."

Mr. Portman said he does not support pairing defunding the ACA with the threat of government shutdown. "What I do support is defunding Obamacare; in fact I support replacing it with better policies."

If the defunding measure is removed from the resolution, the senator said his vote on the CR will depend on what else is in it.
On the whole, however, the senator said continuing resolutions are a poor way of governing. Only one of the past 48 appropriations bills to come before the Senate has passed before the Oct. 1 deadline under Democratic leadership.