Parliamentarian nixing Hyde Amendment in AHCA

Background: House Republicans included the usual proviso saying that the AHCA subsidies can't be used on plans that include abortion. But since the subsidies the AHCA contemplates are fixed tax credits, it appears that proviso won't survive the Byrd bath since it doesn't impact the total outlays or revenues of the bill. More here LINK

quote:

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Normally, controversial legislation requires 60 votes to pass the Senate, but Republicans hope to pass the ObamaCare repeal-and-replace bill with a simple majority vote under a special budgetary process known as reconciliation.

The catch is that the legislation must pass a six-part test known as the Byrd Rule, and it’s up to the parliamentarian to advise whether legislative provisions meet its requirements.

The toughest requirement states that a provision cannot produce changes in government outlays or revenues that are merely incidental to the nonbudgetary components of the provision.

In other words, a provision passed under reconciliation cannot be primarily oriented toward making policy change instead of affecting the budget. Arguably, attaching Hyde language to the refundable tax credits is designed more to shape abortion policy than affect how much money is spent to subsidize healthcare coverage.

The abortion language that conservatives want in the healthcare bill may run afoul of a precedent set in 1995, when then-Senate Parliamentarian Robert Dove ruled that an abortion provision affecting a state block grant program failed to meet reconciliation requirements, according to a source briefed on internal Senate discussions.

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On top of all the other concessions to the centrists being made in the Senate, this might force them to keep the existing Obamacare subsidy structure in place, which means they're really gonna have to lean into the "rearrange some punctuation and have Trump call it repeal so everyone believes it" strategy.