House Republicans began Friday the long effort to repeal President Obama's health-care law by approving a resolution that clears the way for next week's vote. They also devoted time to cleaning up an embarrassing situation involving two lawmakers who missed Wednesday's swearing-in of the 112th Congress. The House approved the terms of debate for the repeal bill on a 236 to 181 vote, with four Democrats from conservative-leaning districts siding with every GOP lawmaker present. The final vote on repeal is set for Wednesday after seven hours of debate. Republicans acknowledge that overturning the landmark law is an uphill effort because Senate Democrats - who still hold the majority in that chamber - have no intention of bringing up the repeal measure. But they suggested that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would at least force a vote on the issue by offering the legislation as an amendment to another bill later this spring.
