U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson says he will appeal a federal judge’s dismissal of his lawsuit challenging a rule related to the way members of Congress and their staff get health insurance under Obamacare.
Johnson, a Republican, said in an opinion piece for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel — which will run in print Sunday — that he feels compelled “to exhaust every legal recourse” as he challenges President Barack Obama’s executive actions.
U.S. District Judge William Griesbach in Green Bay had ruled in July that Johnson and his aide, Brooke Ericson, didn’t have legal standing to bring their lawsuit because they hadn’t been injured.
Specifically, Johnson’s lawsuit challenged an administrative rule passed by the president’s Office of Personnel Management, which allowed members of Congress and their staffs to continue receiving tax-free employer contributions toward their health care under the Affordable Care Act.
Johnson said Congress had voted to make such subsidies unavailable, so that members of Congress and their staff would be in the same boat as their constituents when it came to Obamacare.