Legislative Law Bulletin

The Wall Street Journal reports today that the House Republicans in D.C. “are planning to chip away at the White House’s legislative agenda—in particular the health-care law—by depriving the programs of cash” in anticipation of electoral gains this November that may hand them control of the House. Although it doesn’t appear that either house of Congress would have veto-proof Republican majorities–if, indeed, they obtain the majority at all–but they appear ready to fully wield the power of the purse. “Some Republican aides and advisers say if Republicans controlled the House, they could wedge wide-ranging provisions into appropriations bills that would choke off future funding for the core of the [health-care] law.” As former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin notes, “By having the capacity to block funding for it, you get to very much shape how it turns out.” Appropriations law is arcane and ripe for use by both sides to shape policy; it is the subject of the General Accountability Office’s three-volume Redbook (formally “Principles of Federal Appropriations Law”), which notes that the power of the purse is “the most important single curb in the Constitution on Presidential power.” We perhaps shall soon find out.