President Trump’s choice to lead the FBI will go a long way to ensuring that the Senate’s work on healthcare isn’t derailed, several senators said.
The GOP Senate conference met to discuss repealing Obamacare a day after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey. Several members were worried that the political fallout of the move, and a potentially nasty confirmation battle for Comey’s successor, will derail their nascent efforts to repeal Obamacare.
The Comey firing “already has” become a distraction, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said before the meeting.
But some members said Trump’s pick to succeed Comey would help reduce any distraction on healthcare.
“I think it would be very helpful to the operation of Congress if we have a nomination in fairly short order we can all agree on,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, R-N.D.
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., added that if Trump picks someone with “unimpeachable credentials,” then “it would not be a distraction.”
President Trump hasn’t appointed anyone to fill Comey’s position, who the White House said was let go because of his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server when she was secretary of state. But Democrats, and some Republicans, question the timing of the dismissal since the FBI is investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Several Democrats have called the firing a “constitutional crisis” and an effort by Trump to squash the Russia investigation.
But the biggest news in Washington was discussed minimally at the opening of the GOP conference meeting Wednesday.
The meeting opened with a discussion that Trump was within his rights to let Comey go, and then the discussion promptly moved on to how to reform Medicaid, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said after the meeting.
A working group of 14 senators is meeting Thursday to further discuss drafting an Obamacare repeal bill. The Senate’s work began in earnest after the House passed its own bill last week by a narrow margin of 217-213.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, noted that the Senate has a much narrower majority, as the GOP can afford only two defections.
When asked whether the Comey firing could cause a distraction, Cruz responded, that “is always a concern.”
Washington Examiner Healthcare Reporter Kimberly Leonard contributed to this report.
