House votes to delay health care law, pushing US closer to shutdown

The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted 231-192 early Sunday to avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1, but delay major parts of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) by one year, as outlined in a GOP-designed funding bill.

Yet the measure is virtually certain to die in the Democratic-held Senate, where senators indicated before the House vote that they would reject any amendments that delayed the ACA. As a result, a government shutdown that would begin Tuesday — and which would be the first since 1996 — remains likely.

The White House said earlier Saturday that President Barack Obama would veto any bill that would halt or delay his administration's signature law, which aims to cover millions of Americans who currently have no health insurance. Republicans are pursuing "a narrow ideological agenda ... and pushing the government towards shutdown," it said.

The Republicans' House measure would fund the federal government through Dec. 15.

The standoff in the legislature could result in a shutdown of many federal government operations, though officials have said that essential services will not be significantly cut. A companion measure to Sunday's House bill to assure that U.S. troops are paid in the event of a shutdown passed unanimously.

The Senate is not scheduled to meet until mid-afternoon Monday, 10 hours before a shutdown would begin, and even some Republicans said privately they feared that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., held the advantage in the fast-approaching end game.

If so, a House GOP rank and file that includes numerous tea party allies would soon have to choose between triggering the first partial shutdown in nearly two decades -- or coming away empty-handed from their latest confrontation with Obama.

A Senate Democratic aide said Saturday that the Senate would likely strip out measures of the House bill that seek to delay the health care act – and would then probably demand that the House simply pass the funding bill, which was approved in the Senate earlier this week and which leaves Obama's health care bill intact.

Still, the GOP pushed ahead with its latest attempt to squeeze a concession from the White House in exchange for letting the government open for business normally on Tuesday.

"Obamacare is based on a limitless government, bureaucratic arrogance and a disregard of a will of the people," said Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind.

At 11:59 p.m. Monday, the U.S. government will technically run out of money to fund many of its operations in the new fiscal year that starts on Tuesday, unless Congress can agree on a funding measure.

Al Jazeera and wire services