Sen. Bob Corker believes a healthcare bill being written behind closed doors by Republicans will be made public Thursday, and that the Senate will vote on it by next week.
“My understanding is I’m going to see it on Thursday,” Corker, R-Tenn., said on MSNBC. “I think it’s planned to be out, language and all, on Thursday.”
Corker said he was “looking forward to diving into that substance” of it, and that he would vote for or against it depending on how it affects his constituents in the state and how it affects the nation.
“I have a sense of where this is going and understand the rubs that exist,” he said, adding that he expected all Republican senators to meet about it Wednesday.
Asked whether a week was enough time to review the bill, Corker responded: “Well, it looks like the time that’s going to be allotted.”
GOP Senate leaders are aiming to repeal portions of Obamacare before the Fourth of July recess, but the bill’s text has not been made public and there are deep divisions between GOP centrist and conservative senators over handling provisions for people with pre-existing illnesses, cutting off federal funding for birth control, cancer screenings and STD testing from Planned Parenthood, and what to do about the Medicaid program. Republicans have held no public hearings on the bill, and because Democrats do not have the votes to stop the effort they instead have been blasting the process during floor speeches, one of which carried late into the night Monday.
Corker said during his interview that the bill’s debate has not occurred as he would have preferred.
“I’ll tell you this: We will work around the clock to make sure that we understand what’s in it,” he said. “I don’t want to prejudge, and, you know, I would have liked, as you already know, for this to be a more open process and to have committee hearings, but that’s not what we’re doing. At the end of the day, that doesn’t preclude my responsibilities as a senator to either vote yes or no based on the substance that’s in it.”
