House votes to use health law prevention fund to help pay for student loan program

Apr 30 2012

News outlets covered the partisan House of Representatives vote today.

Bloomberg: House Votes to Avert Doubling of Student Interest Rates 
The Republican-led House passed legislation to prevent the U.S. student-loan interest rate from doubling on July 1, defying President Barack Obama's threat to veto the measure because it would raid a health-prevention fund to finance the subsidy. The bill to extend the subsidy for one year passed on a 215-195 vote (Rowley, 4/27).

USA Today: House Votes To Extend Low Rates On Federal Student Loans
Both parties broadly agree that the rate should be extended for one year, but they do not agree on how to pay for it. It is a scenario that has played out repeatedly in this Congress. Republicans would pay for the cost of the loan extension by cutting funds from the Prevention and Public Health Fund (PPHF), a $15 billion fund created under the health care law ... Congress already dipped into the fund to use $5 billion to pay for the payroll tax cut extension package earlier this year (Davis, 4/27).

Politico: House Passes Student Loan bill With Health Fund Cuts
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said the previous cuts are "all the more reason why we shouldn't be taking more money out of it." She said that the cuts to the fund in the payroll deal were the "only way" to get Republican approval of the plan. ... Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle (R-N.Y.) said the prevention fund is "nothing more than a slush fund" that gives too much authority to the HHS secretary for "bike paths, jungle gyms and worse yet, lobbying campaigns" (Haberkorn, 4/27).

The Washington Post: House Approves Student Loan Plan; White House Vows Veto Over Health Fund Depletion
"This bill goes in the wrong direction trying to do the right thing," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said before the vote. Hoyer and others blamed Republicans for picking another fight over the health-care law by trying to deplete a fund that they said provides money to city and state governments to help prevent obesity, the spread of HIV/AIDS and tobacco use and to train public health workers. But House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) struck back angrily at those claims during a floor speech ahead of the vote, slamming the podium several times for emphasis. "Why do people insist that we have to have a political fight on something where there is no fight?" Boehner asked (O'Keefe, 4/27).

Earlier KHN summary of coverage: Public Health Prevention Fund At Center Of Partisan Clash On Student Loans (4/27)