House committee votes to defund AHRQ

A House committee moved a step closer Tuesday to getting rid of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) -- an agency long disliked by some members of Congress. The House Appropriations Committee has inserted a provision in a bill providing funding for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education that would zero out funding for the AHRQ, whose 2015 budget was $440 million. A move by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) to restore the funding failed on a voice vote. The appropriations bill, which the committee approved Tuesday by a vote of 30-21, must be approved by the full House as well as the Senate; the AHRQ's fate in the latter chamber is unclear.