WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump is expected to sign legislation Thursday erasing an Obama-era rule that barred states from withholding federal family planning funds from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.
The rule was finalized shortly before Obama left office in January.
The legislation squeezed narrowly through the Senate last month after Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote.
It was passed using an obscure measure called the Congressional Review Act, which lets lawmakers undo regulations enacted in the last months of the Obama administration with just a majority vote.
Meanwhile, the nation’s largest business group is joining doctors, hospitals and insurers in asking President Donald Trump to preserve a key part of “Obamacare,” as his predecessor’s health care law is known.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has been critical of many parts of the Obama-era law, signed on to a letter Wednesday that asks Trump to keep cost-sharing subsidies provided by the Affordable Care Act. Those subsidies, totaling an estimated $7 billion this year, help lower deductibles and copayments for people with modest incomes.
The letter — also signed by the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, America’s Health Insurance Plans and other groups — says the cost-sharing subsidies are critical for the stability of health insurance markets.
The subsidies are in legal limbo.
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