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“TOM RICE MAKES A DIFFERENCE” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E783 on May 24, 2016.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TOM RICE MAKES A DIFFERENCE
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HON. JOE WILSON
of south carolina
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
Mr. WILSON of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful that Congressman Tom Rice of South Carolina, with his accounting and legal background, was recognized for his role in determining the unlawful implementation of Obamacare. The following article by Emma Dumain was published May 13, 2016, in the Charleston Post and Courier:
Washington--A federal judge on Thursday ruled the Obama administration was improperly funding a subsidy program of the Affordable Care Act, a victory for House Republicans who took the unprecedented action nearly two years ago to sue the White House.
U.S. Rep. Tom Rice argues that he's partially to thank.
The South Carolina Republican doesn't get much, if any, public credit for being the first member of Congress to broach the idea of filing a lawsuit against President Barack Obama on the grounds he was overstepping the limitations of the executive branch on health care, immigration and other issues.
But as Rice tells it, the seeds of the Obamacare lawsuit began with the resolution he introduced in December 2013 at the end of his very first year on Capitol Hill.
Rice became bothered by Obama's alleged circumventing of Congress that summer when the U.S. Supreme Court determined the penalties the health law places on individuals who don't buy insurance are protected by the Constitution, because they count as taxes.
Around that time, Rice, like other Republicans, was also reeling over Obama's decision to delay implementation of the so-called ``employer mandate'' which requires business owners to provide health insurance for their employees.
``I'm a tax lawyer,'' Rice told The Post and Courier, ``so I knew that cannot be right. If the president can just willy nilly choose to waive a tax or enforce a tax, then his power is unlimited. He can say, `well, I'm not gonna apply the highest tax rate this year. I'm not gonna apply the capital gains tax this year. I'm not gonna apply whatever.' ''
So Rice consulted legal experts on what legislative remedies might exist to hold Obama accountable short of impeachment, which even the staunchest critics of the administration knew was a political minefield.
The result was the STOP Act, short for ``Stop This Over-Reaching President Act.'' It authorized the House of Representatives to sue the Obama administration in any of the following areas: The delay of the employer mandate, the stays of deportations for certain children of undocumented immigrants, and changes in criteria for receiving welfare.
Rice took the resolution to then-House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.
``I asked him to read it and to my surprise he came back to me within two hours,'' Rice recalled. ``And he said, `a lawsuit against the president? That's kind of radical, isn't it?' So I knew it wasn't going anywhere fast.''
But momentum grew, with more co-sponsors signing onto the STOP Act every time Obama said or did something that perturbed the Republican base.
``I filed it right before Christmas of 2013. And over December the president said, `I got a pen and a phone and if you all don't do what I want you to do I'm gonna do it myself.' And I got like 50 co-sponsors the next day,'' said Rice. ``And then in January he gave the State of the Union address and he said, `if you don't enact my agenda then I'm gonna do it myself.' I got 15 more co-sponsors.''
As 2014 wore on, the pressure was growing on Boehner to allow the House to act.
``He was getting a lot of calls,'' said Rice, ``so he called me in and said, `I need you to help me market this but I'm going to re-file this resolution under my name.' So he did. He put my resolution aside and filed an entirely new resolution.''
By July, the House voted to authorize a lawsuit in federal court challenging Obama's delay in implementing the employer mandate. It also targeted the cost-sharing program between the administration and insurance companies which Republicans say Congress never approved.
On Thursday, a federal district judge in Washington, D.C., ruled in the House's favor on that second point. The Justice Department has appealed the ruling, which sets up a prolonged legal battle. Rice said he still feels ``vindicated.''
``I'm happy that it moves towards restoration of the balance of powers that the framers set up in the Constitution,'' he said. ``I'm sorry we had to go through this great lengths to make that happen.''
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