Moves by House GOP spur veto threat

On the brink of a government shutdown, House Republicans on Saturday prepared to amend the Senate's recently passed short-term spending bill with provisions to delay the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for one year and repeal the law's medical device tax.

The lower chamber went through a series of procedural moves on Saturday before House members are expected to vote later in the evening on those two Affordable Care Act amendments and the overall spending bill that would keep the government funded through Dec. 15, a month later than the Senate provided for in its bill.

A government shutdown seemed increasingly likely after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) promised again to reject the House GOP's efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, and the White House threatened to veto the legislation.

"To be absolutely clear, the Senate will reject both the one-year delay of the Affordable Care Act and the repeal of the medical device tax," Reid said in a statement Saturday. Repealing the law's 2.3% medical device tax, which would raise about $30 billion over 10 years to help pay for the Affordable Care Act's provisions, has strong bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress. But Reid said earlier this week that if lawmakers want to consider that issue, they should do so in separate legislation.

Meanwhile, a statement of administrative policy from the Obama administration on Saturday said that in proposing the amendments to the Senate's spending bill, the House has chosen to "advance a narrow ideological agenda and threaten the nation's economy. By including extraneous measures that have no place in a government funding bill and that the President and the Senate already made clear are unacceptable," the statement continued, "House Republicans are pushing the government toward a shutdown."

Follow Jessica Zigmond on Twitter: @MHjzigmond