The entire Republican-led Senate will meet three days per week to try to hammer out a proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday.
McConnell said lawmakers will devote all of their upcoming their upcoming closed-door lunches that convene on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to healthcare.
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“We just spent virtually the entire hour on the healthcare issue,” McConnell said after exiting the Tuesday lunch. “Each of these lunches that we have for the foreseeable future are going to be devoted almost entirely to the healthcare issue and everybody plays a part of the discussion.”
McConnell refuted criticism that a 13-member GOP healthcare working group includes no women as permanent members. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., attended a meeting of the group Tuesday but it’s not clear she’s a permanent member.
McConnell dismissed the working group, even though he is considered an official member, and said “the ones that count” are the “extremely well-attended” weekly luncheons attended by the GOP Senate, including five female lawmakers.
Unlike the 435-member House, McConnell said, the smaller Senate can more easily meet to work out a proposal.
“We have fewer members, and so we are able to meet, all of us, multiple times every week,” McConnell said.
McConnell repeatedly declined to comment on the 13-member working group’s lack of women.
“Nobody is being excluded based on gender,” he said. “Everybody is at the table. Everybody.”
McConnell said “if we keep talking,” they can come up with agreement among at least 50 of their 52 Republicans, which would allow them to pass legislation utilizing Vice President Mike Pence as a tie-breaking vote.
Pence has attended every GOP Tuesday lunch.
