[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 82 (Tuesday, May 24, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E783]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      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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