Norton Applauds Senate Committee for Turning Back Vitter Attempt to Deprive Congressional Employees of Health Subsidies by Bullying D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today hailed the 14-5 vote by the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee rejecting Chairman David Vitter's (R-LA) request to issue a subpoena to the District of Columbia Health Benefit Exchange Authority for the private, confidential employer applications submitted by the House and Senate for Members of Congress and their staff to enroll in the District's small business exchange. Republican members of the committee voting against the subpoena cited concerns about the appropriateness of the committee issuing the subpoena and also said that their congressional staffers could lose the employer contribution for their health insurance premiums. Norton said Vitter threatened the subpoena at a time when he is trying to raise his national and conservative profile in a run for Louisiana governor.

"Senator Vitter had previously asked for the enrollment information from the Exchange, the House and the Senate, who had refused to give it," Norton said. "However, it appears he thought he could subpoena the small guy on the block, the District of Columbia, whose residents have no senator to fight back. Senator Vitter is on a transparently political crusade to burnish his conservative credentials before the October elections and sought to go after the Affordable Care Act and the District of Columbia at the same time. Louisiana, it should be noted, was one of the states that rejected the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act, a decision that has left nearly 300,000 Louisianans without health insurance. By standing steadfast, more than 12,000 Members of Congress and congressional staffers have been spared an autocratic attempt to pry into their health care privacy. Importantly this was a bipartisan vote with members of both sides of the aisle recognizing this political attack was not the role or the jurisdiction of the committee. Most Senators were not willing to put congressional Members and staff at risk of losing the employer contribution to their health insurance premiums, which has been the point of the Vitter crusade. If he had been successful, the Congress would have been the only large employer that made no contribution to the health insurance premiums of its employees. Vitter and his conservative allies at Judicial Watch in February lost a court challenge on the legality of the use of the District's Exchange for Members and staff to enroll in health insurance. The court dismissed the lawsuit because it found the enrollment is authorized by federal regulations. Perhaps after having his hat handed to him by his own colleagues, Vitter will cease this mean-spirited attempt to deprive Members and staff of employer contributions to their health insurance premiums."

The Affordable Care Act does not prohibit Members and their staff from enrolling in a small business exchange. The Office of Personnel Management, using its authority to implement the Affordable Care Act, promulgated a final rule stating that Members and their staff may buy insurance on the D.C. small business exchange.