July 21, 2017
President Donald J. Trump
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
On behalf of millions of taxpayers who are members and supporters of our organizations, weurge you to direct the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to rescind the Obamaera rule (78 Fed. Reg. 60653-01) that allows Congress to masquerade as a small business in order to force taxpayers to pay for their health insurance.
This ongoing fraud improperly allows Congress and its staff to avoid the pain the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) is inflicting on millions of other Americans.
When Congress was debating Obamacare, the American people demanded that Congress subject themselves and their staff to the new system they were imposing on their fellow Americans.
Those demands worked, and before Obamacare passed the Senate in 2009, Section1312(d)(3)(D) was included. That section requires members of Congress and their staff to buy health insurance through an Obamacare exchange, and unlike an earlier proposed version does not authorize an employer contribution toward their premiums.
The provision was set to take effect in 2014, causing panic on Capitol Hill. Members of Congress and their staff were desperate to keep their taxpayer-funded, gold-plated health care rather than go into Obamacare and pay their own way, as the law required.
After a meeting with Senate Democrats in March 2013, then-president Barack Obama personally committed to illegally exempt Congress from this provision of Obamacare.1 And he did.
Obama directed OPM to issue a rule purporting that Congress, which has thousands of employees, is a small business and therefore: “the DC Health Link Small Business Market administered by the DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority, is the appropriate SHOP from which Members of Congress and designated congressional staff will purchase health insurance in order to receive a Government contribution.”2
This fraud of instructing Congress to masquerade as a small business was the key to the scheme, because if members of Congress and their staff had signed up for Obamacare under the individual exchange – as any other American losing employer coverage has to – they would have had to pay their own premiums.
The House and Senate each filed a false declaration with the DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority claiming to have less than 50 employees – an indefensible fact that was never publicly disclosed.3
Fortunately, you have the power to end the scheme by directing OPM to rescind the Obama rule and issue a new rule that conforms to the statutory requirement the Congress and their staff pay their own premiums in the individual Obamacare exchange.
We urge you to do so expeditiously.
Sincerely,
Phil Kerpen
President
American Commitment
Daniel Schneider
Executive Director
American Conservative Union
Sean Noble
President
American Encore
Tim Wildmon
President
American Family Association
Christine Harbin
Vice President of External Affairs
Americans for Prosperity
Grover Norquist
President
Americans for Tax Reform
Gayle S. Trotter
President
American Womens Alliance, Inc.
Andrew F. Quinlan
President
Center for Freedom and Prosperity
Jeffrey Mazzella
President
Center for Individual Freedom
David McIntosh
President
Club for Growth
Thomas Schatz
President
Citizens Against Government Waste
Matthew Kandrach
President
Consumer Action for a Strong Economy
Ed Martin
President
Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund
Patrick Purtill
Director of Legislative Affairs
Faith & Freedom Coalition
Ryan Ellis
Senior Tax Advisor
Family Business Coalition
David Bozell
President
ForAmerica
Jason Pye
Vice President of Legislative Affairs
FreedomWorks
Nathan Nascimento
Vice President of Policy
Freedom Partners
George Landrith
President
Frontiers of Freedom
David Barnes
Director of Policy
Generation Opportunity
Michael A. Needham
Chief Executive Officer
Heritage Action for America
Carrie L. Lukas
President
Independent Women's Forum
Heather R. Higgins
President and CEO
Independent Women's Voice
Andrew Langer
President
Institute for Liberty
Tom Giovanetti
President
Institute for Policy Innovation
Tom Fitton
President
Judicial Watch
Seton Motley
President
Less Government
Gregory T. Angelo
President
Log Cabin Republicans
L. Brent Bozell III
President
Media Research Center
David Ridenour
President
National Center for Public Policy Research
Bob Adams
President
Revive America PAC
David Williams
President
Taxpayers Protection Alliance
Judson Phillips
Founder
Tea Party Nation
Jenny Beth Martin
President
Tea Party Patriots
Dean Clancy
Partner
Adams Auld LLC
Greg Scandlen
Senior Fellow
Consumers for Health Care Choices
Ginni Thomas
President
Liberty Consulting
Maureen Blum
President
Strategic Coalitions & Initiatives LLC
David A. Keene
Editor-at-Large
Washington Times
1 John Bresnahan and Jake Sherman, “Obama on Hill's ACA mess: I'm on it,” Politico, July 31, 2013. http://www.politico.com/story/2013/07/obama-hill-health-care-dispute-095017
2 Federal Employees Health Benefits Program: Members of Congress and Congressional Staff, 78 Fed. Reg. 60653-01 (Oct. 2, 2013). https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2013-10-02/pdf/2013-23565.pdf
3 Judicial Watch, “D.C. Government Concedes Law Does Not Allow for Congress to Obtain Obamacare in ‘Small Business Exchange,’” Jan. 7, 2015. http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/d-c-governmentconcedes-law-not-allow-congress-obtain-obamacare-small-business-exchange/