Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., announced Monday that he will return to Washington on Tuesday for the first time since being diagnosed with brain cancer, just in time for a key vote on healthcare reform.
“Senator McCain looks forward to returning to the United States Senate tomorrow to continue working on important legislation, including health care reform, the National Defense Authorization Act, and new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea,” a McCain spokesman said in a statement.
Earlier in the day, various senators, including Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said that McCain might be coming back for the highly anticipated motion-to-proceed vote. The GOP needs every vote it can get in the Senate, where it has a narrow 52-48 majority, and will need 50 votes at a minimum to advance the healthcare bill.
McCain announced his cancer diagnosis last Wednesday, days after revealing he had a procedure to remove a blood clot from above his left eye.
The Senate vote is still in jeopardy for Republicans in part because senators aren’t clear what bill they’ll be working on. The first procedural vote will be to start work on a House-passed bill to partially repeal and replace Obamacare.
After that, however, it’s not clear if Republicans will amend it with a bill to cleanly repeal most of Obamacare and worry about replacement in two years, or a bill to repeal and replace parts of the law now.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Monday he has “no clue” what bill will be brought to the floor.
Still, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., confirmed during a speech on the floor that a vote would be held on Tuesday, but did not wade into specifics.
“The only way we’ll have an opportunity to consider ideas is if senators have an opportunity to offer and debate them and that means kicking off debate, it means voting to proceed,” McConnell, R-Ky., said Monday. “And that will occur tomorrow.”
