{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.sasse.senate.gov//public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=543B3159-3AE1-417F-9944-9DD0F273E8CE", "Sasse on GAO's Obamacare Opinion: \"The Law Is the Law and HHS Broke It\"", "2016-09-29", "2016", "2016-09", "Republican", "House", "NE", "Ben Sasse", "S001197", "www.sasse.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "U.S. Senator Ben Sasse, the author of the\u00a0\u201cTaxpayers Before Insurers Act,\u201dissued the following statement after the Government Accounting Office (GAO) issued\u00a0a new legal opinion\u00a0siding against The Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 implementation of Obamacare\u2019s reinsurance program.\u00a0\"GAO's new legal opinion is simple: the law is the law and HHS broke it,\u201d said Sasse. \u201cWashington has been running a textbook, crony scheme: cutting checks to big insurance companies that can afford lobbyists instead of giving taxpayers the $5 billion they\u2019re owed. Congress must put taxpayers ahead of insurance companies.\u201d\u00a0Background:\u00a0Today, the GAO issued\u00a0a new legal opinion, concluding \u201cthat HHS lacks authority to ignore the statute\u2019s directive to deposit amounts from collections under the transitional reinsurance program in the Treasury and instead make deposits to the Treasury only if its collections reach the amounts for reinsurance payments specified in section 1341.\u00a0This prioritization of collections for payments to issuers over payments to the Treasury is not authorized.\u201d\u00a0(Emphasis added.)Like the Affordable Care Act\u2019s risk corridor program, the reinsurance program is designed to protect big insurance companies.\u00a0The law requires the Secretary of HHS to deposit $5 billion total from 2014-2016 to Treasury through the reinsurance program. Rather than make those deposits to the Treasury, HHS has decided to prioritize payments to insurance companies.Ignoring the clear text of the law, HHS has prioritized payments to insurance companies rather than payments to the Treasury: In 2014, the Treasury should have received $2 billion in general fund payments but received nothing even though HHS sent insurance companies the full $8 billion in reinsurance payments they requested. HHS also carried over another $1.7 billion to give insurance companies later. For 2015, HHS said they would give Treasury only $500 million of the $2 billion it should receive but insurers will receive a $7.7 billion payout ($6 billion for 2015 plus the $1.7 billion carried over from 2014).\u00a0In April, Senator Sasse introduced the\u00a0\u201cTaxpayers Before Insurers Act.\u201d\u00a0This legislation would slash 50 percent of HHS\u2019 general departmental management fund unless the Secretary of HHS pays the full amount taxpayers are owed.", 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.sasse.senate.gov//public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=543B3159-3AE1-417F-9944-9DD0F273E8CE"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.6532349400222301, "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"}