New House GOP leaders plan early vote on health law repeal

The Washington Post: Austerity Is First Order For Boehner's Installation As House Speaker
Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said Republicans would hold a vote on repealing the health-care law before Obama delivers his State of the Union address later this month. Upton said disenchantment with the law is so pervasive in the new House that they could reach the two-thirds threshold to overturn a likely presidential veto. Yet for all of the GOP's ambitions, Democrats still control the Senate and Obama can veto any bill that passes Congress. Democrats have said they are eager to reach common ground with House Republicans, but they also plan to fiercely defend Obama's achievements of the past two years, chief among them the health-care overhaul (Rucker, 1/3).

The New York Times: GOP Newcomers Set Out To Undo Obama Victories
Soon after the 112th Congress convenes Wednesday, Republicans in the House plan to make good on a campaign promise that helped vault many new members to victory: voting to repeal President Obama's health care overhaul (Steinhauer and Pear, 1/2).

USA Today: House Republicans Plan Early Vote On Health Care Repeal
The new Republican leaders of the House of Representatives plan to hold a vote on repealing the White House's signature health care law before President Obama delivers the State of the Union address in late January, a key committee chairman said Sunday (Page and Jackson, 1/3).

The Washington Post: House Republicans To Bring Up Repeal Of Health-Care Law 'Early' In New Congress
House Republicans plan to bring up a vote to repeal the health-care overhaul early in the new Congress that opens Wednesday, at least before President Obama delivers his State of the Union address later this month, a key Republican lawmaker said Sunday (Rucker, 1/2).

National Journal: Upton Predicts House Health Care Repeal Bill in January
The incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Sunday that House Republicans will probably move to repeal President Obama's health care reform law in January. Michigan Republican Fred Upton said on Fox News Sunday that he expects House Republicans to bring up a health care repeal measure before Obama delivers his State of the Union address at the end of the month (Jacobs, 1/2).

The Hill: Healthcare Repeal Bill Coming Before Obama's Annual Address
The incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Sunday that Republicans will bring up a healthcare repeal measure before President Obama even delivers his annual address to Congress this month (Johnson, 1/2).

Roll Call: Upton Predicts Early Health Care Repeal Vote
Upton said he expects "a significant number of Democrats to join us" in voting to repeal the law, and he then hopes to pressure the Democratic-controlled Senate to do the same. He said he thinks the House may have a big enough majority to override a presidential veto of the repeal. If that process doesn't succeed, though, Upton said he would go after the law "piece by piece," focusing first on dismantling the most controversial provisions (Miller, 1/2).

Fox News: Top House Republican Predicts 'Significant' Bipartisan Support For Health Care Law Repeal
The Republicans' pledge to hold an early vote to repeal the health care law is widely seen as symbolic. Republicans reason that the voters who gave them the House majority in November expect them to at least go on record against the health law in the next session, though congressional rules make it highly unlikely that they'll be able to overturn it while a Democratic president is in office (1/2).

The Associated Press: GOP Legislators Pledge To Cut And Investigate
Republican lawmakers have an ambitious agenda for the new Congress that convenes Wednesday, including repealing some or all of the health care overhaul law. Republicans also promise to cut spending and prevent unelected bureaucrats from expanding the government's role in society through regulations that tell people what they must or can't do (Margasak,1/3).