WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner Thursday released a draft resolution of his threatened lawsuit against President Obama, alleging that Obama exceeded his executive authority in delaying a key provision of the Affordable Care Act.

“The Constitution states that the president must faithfully execute the laws, and spells out that only the Legislative Branch has the power to legislate,” Boehner said in a statement. “The current president believes he has the power to make his own laws – at times even boasting about it.”

In the draft, Boehner maintains that Obama exceeded his authority by delaying the employer mandate, a key provision of the 2010 health care law that congressional Republicans have aggressively sought to kill.

The House Rules Committee will hold a hearing next week on the resolution authorizing the Republican-led lawsuit.

Last July, after months of consulting with concerned employers, the administration announced it was delaying implementing the mandate until 2015. Under the law, companies with 50 or more employees would face fines as high as $3,000 per-employee if they didn’t offer affordable insurance.

At the time of the delay announcement, White House special adviser Valerie Jarrett said employers needed more time to comply with the new rules.

“In 2013, the president changed the health care law without a vote of Congress, effectively creating his own law by literally waiving the employer mandate and the penalties for failing to comply with it,” Boehner said. “That’s not the way our system of government was designed to work.”


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