Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday abandoned plans to vote on a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare because the measure lacks enough support to even begin the debate.
Republican lawmakers were unable to find consensus after an hour-long private meeting with Vice President Mike Pence and other administration members.
“I think we need a little bit more time,” Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said after the meeting. “It’s a conversation, and we haven’t finished our conversation.”
Republicans originally hoped to hold a procedural vote Wednesday to begin debate on the measure, which would have eliminated Obamacare mandates, slowed the rate of Medicaid growth for able-bodied adults and cut many Obamacare taxes.
Congress leaves town for a week-long recess at the end of this week.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told lawmakers they would work on building support for the plan so that it can be considered after the July 4 break.
“We are going to continue the discussions within our conference on the differences that we have that we have, that we are going to try to litigate,” McConnell said after meeting with Senate Republicans. “We will not be on the bill this week, but we are still working toward getting at least 50 people in a comfortable place.”
“We are going to press on,” McConnell said. “We think the status quo is unsustainable and we are optimistic we are going to gt to a result that is better than the status quo.”
McConnell said Republicans are headed to the White House at the invitation of President Trump, at 4 p.m.
“The White House has been very involved in the discussions,” McConnell said. “They are very anxious to help.”
McConnell’s decision to abandon the vote followed days of negotiating with Republicans on either end of his party’s political spectrum. Republicans discussed adding more money for states to deal with the opioid epidemic as well as expanding health savings accounts.
On Monday, Republicans announced they had slightly changed the bill to include a provision that would create a six-month coverage delay for those who had let their health insurance lapse more than two months. The provision earned praise from the health insurer Anthem, which said in a statement it would help stabilize the market and lower prices.
A day later, however, Republican leaders still lacked the 51 votes needed to advance the bill to the floor for debate despite a pledge earlier in the day by Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, that a vote would happen this week.
Al Weaver contributed to this story
