{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cochran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=22d3f160-6355-4d48-96fa-c12f8824a846", "COCHRAN, WICKER COSPONSOR BILL TO DELAY OBAMACARE MANDATE", "2013-10-28", "2013", "2013-10", "Republican", "House", "MS", "Thad Cochran", "C000567", "www.cochran.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senators Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) today cosponsored legislation to delay the health insurance individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) until the insurance exchanges are certified as fully functional.\r\nThe Mississippi Senators are original cosponsors of the Delay Until Fully Functional Act, introduced Monday by Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).\u00a0 The bill would ensure that American citizens are not penalized for being unable to enroll using the faulty American Health Benefit Exchanges.  \u00a0   Under the PPACA or \u201cObamacare,\u201d the individual mandate requires uninsured Americans to purchase healthcare insurance by Dec. 15 or face a penalty tax.\u00a0 Since its launch on Oct. 1, the federal healthcare.gov website has been largely unworkable and actually crashed over the weekend.\r\n\u201cThis legislation acknowledges what the Obama administration will not admit\u2014that its insurance exchange websites, developed at great expense to taxpayers, are an unworkable mess.\u00a0 Mississippians should not be taxed for being unable to use dysfunctional websites,\u201d Cochran said.\r\n\u201cThe difficulties that Americans are facing with the Obamacare website highlight the rampant problems associated with the health-care law,\u201d Wicker said. \u201cPeople in Mississippi should not be penalized because of the Administration\u2019s failed rollout of the online health-care exchanges. It is not fair or right to force Americans to enroll in a broken system.\u201d\r\nThe legislation would delay the individual mandate and require that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) study the exchange websites and report to Congress within 30 days.\u00a0 If the exchanges are not found to be fully functional, the GAO would conduct subsequent studies and report every 60 days until the Comptroller General determines that the exchanges are fully functional.\u00a0 At that point, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) inspector general would be required to certify the results of the GAO report.\u00a0 The individual mandate could be reinstated six months after the HHS inspector general certification.\r\nFreedomWorks, Americans for Prosperity, Americans for Tax Reform and the National Taxpayers Union have endorsed this legislation, which is also sponsored by Senators John Boozman (R-Ark.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Mike Johanns (R-Neb.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Pat Roberts (R-Kan.).\r\nA companion bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Representative Trey Radel (R-Fla.).\r\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cochran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=22d3f160-6355-4d48-96fa-c12f8824a846"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8525289595127106, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}