{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://foxx.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=361854", "Democrats Break Ranks to Support Change", "2013-11-14", "2013", "2013-11", "Republican", "House", "NC", "Virginia Foxx", "F000450", "foxx.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "In all, 39 Democrats broke ranks and supported the legislation, a total that underscored the growing importance of the issue in the weeks since millions of cancellation notices went out to consumers covered by plans deemed inadequate under government rules.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nVirginia Foxx (R-5)and Howard Coble (R-6) were among the North Carolina representatives who voted for the legislation. Mel Watt (D-12) voted against the change.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe final vote was 261-157 as lawmakers clashed over an issue likely to be at the heart of next year\u2019s midterm elections. The measure faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, where Democrats seeking re-election in 2014 are leading a move for generally similar legislation.\r\n\u201cFor the last six weeks, the White House stood idly by, ignoring the pleas of millions,\u201d said Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and lead sponsor of the legislation.\r\n\u201cOur straightforward, one-page bill says, if you like your current coverage, you should be able to keep it. The president should heed his own advice and work with us, the Congress, as the founders intended, not around the legislative process.\u201d\r\nBut Democrats said the measure was just another in a long line of attacks on the health care bill from Republicans who have voted repeatedly to repeal it.\r\n\u201cIt would take away the core protections of that law. It creates an entire shadow market of substandard health care plans,\u201d said Rep. Henry Waxman of California.\r\nThe vote came shortly before President Barack Obama welcomed insurance company CEOs to a White House meeting, and one day after he announced a shift toward making good on his oft-repeated promise that anyone liking his pre-Obamacare coverage would be able to keep it.\r\nIn brief opening remarks, he did not refer to the House vote and showed no give in his commitment to the program known by his name.\r\n\u201cBecause of choice and competition, a whole lot of Americans who have always seen health insurance out of reach are going to be in a position to purchase it,\u201d he said.\r\nThe events capped a remarkable series of politically inspired maneuvers in recent days. The president and lawmakers in both parties have sought to position themselves as allies of consumers who are receiving cancellation notices \u2014 yet have made no move to cooperate on legislation that could require those consumers\u2019 coverage to be renewed if they wanted to keep it.\r\nNeither Obama\u2019s new policy nor the bill passed in the House would ensure that anyone whose policy is canceled will be able to keep it. Instead, both would permit insurance companies to sell coverage renewals if they wish \u2014 subject to approval by state insurance commissioners.\r\nThe White House meeting came as the industry and state commissioners began adjusting to the president\u2019s one-day-old change in policy.\r\nUnder the shift, Obama said insurers should be permitted to continue to sell to existing customers individual coverage plans that would be deemed substandard under the health care law. Without the change, many existing plans would have been banned beginning next year, and the president\u2019s announcement was an attempt to quell a public and political furor triggered by millions of cancellation notices.\r\nThe House measure went one step further. It would give insurance firms the ability to sell individual plans to new as well as existing customers, even if the coverage falls short of the law\u2019s requirements.\r\nDemocrats sought to substitute a plan of their own that consisted largely of Obama\u2019s new policy, but failed on a party-line vote.", 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": ["http://foxx.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=361854"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.8277587369084358, "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"}