President Donald Trump emerged from a meeting with House Republicans Tuesday morning confident that their health care bill would pass the lower chamber this week, even as conservatives continued to express doubts about the legislation’s new and arguably improved substance.
“We’re gonna have a real winner,” the president said after the gathering at the Capitol. “There are going to be adjustments but I think we’ll get the vote on Thursday.”
The House Rules Committee, which will consider the package before it heads to the floor for a vote expected Thursday, released an amendment to the American Health Care Act Monday night with bait for both skeptical moderates and the party’s right wing. The amendment includes a provision designed to make insurance more affordable specifically for older Americans, and it accelerates the elimination of Obamacare’s premium subsidies and makes multiple changes to Medicaid.
House speaker Paul Ryan touted the tweaks as “an extension of [an] inclusive approach” to putting together a final bill. But that same evening, the House Freedom Caucus, a group of key conservatives that has generally opposed the AHCA, huddled with Senate allies and maintained the legislation still lacked the necessary support to pass. The caucus did not take an official position, but a spokeswoman said Tuesday that “doesn’t mean they won’t vote as a bloc.” The group’s chairman, North Carolina representative Mark Meadows—who reportedly was singled out by Trump during the Tuesday morning meeting—said he was “confident that we have still enough concerns that a vote of 216 votes in the House would not happen today.”
Meadows also joined Senators Ted Cruz and Mike Lee for a meeting with White House aides Monday night, where they were upset to learn there will be “no more changes to the bill,” according to a Senate aide quoted by Michael Warren. That goes for the House’s role in moving the measure; should it pass, the Senate still plans to hold a “vote-a-rama” amendment process.
Joining Trump at the GOP conference gathering Tuesday morning were top aides Steven Bannon, Reince Priebus, and Stephen Miller. He rallied the day before in Kentucky, home state of AHCA detractor and senator Rand Paul, partly to speak in support of the bill. As Politico reported, however, Trump seemed to be focused more on other items of his agenda: tax reform and infrastructure, matters that will be a subsequent act of his legislative agenda.
