Does the Administration Have the Legal Authority to Fund Obamacare’s Bailout of Insurers?

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) says that federal agencies are prohibited “from making payments in the absence of a valid appropriation,” and Obamacare’s risk-corridor section “would not appear to constitute an appropriation.”  It adds that federal agencies “may not create a revolving fund absent specific authorizing legislation,” and “there does not appear to be sufficient statutory language to create a revolving fund.”