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Last updated on Monday, January 11, 2016
(WASHINGTON) - President Barack Obama has vetoed legislation to repeal his signature healthcare law.
It's one of many repeal measures pushed by Republican lawmakers since 2010, when Obama signed the healthcare program into law. But it's the first bill to clear both houses of Congress and make it to Obama's desk.
The legislation would also cut $450 million in federal funding for Planned Parenthood.
The Senate passed the bill last year under special rules that protected it from a Democratic filibuster. The House followed suit this week. Both chambers are now under GOP control.
The veto was expected.
But Republicans say they met two goals by passing the bill: keeping a promise to voters in an election year, and showing their ability to repeal the law if a Republican wins the presidency.
The measure was passed by a vote of 240-181, with just three Republicans voting against repeal and one Democrat voting in favor.
"This is the closest that we have come to repealing Obamacare. And now we are sending that repeal to the president's desk. And we have now shown that, with a Republican president, there is a clear path to repealing Obamacare without 60 votes in the United States Senate," said House Speaker Paul Ryan (R). "The idea that Obamacare is the law of the land for a long time is a myth. We will see this law either collapse under its own weight... Or we will see this law in the next session of Congress, as we are proving here today, be repealed and signed and replaced by a Republican president."
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