The Congressional Budget Office said it would provide a “preliminary assessment” by early next week of the latest proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The proposal, offered by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., would give states control over the fate of Obamacare and its accompanying federal funding.
CBO officials said the assessment would include whether the proposal reduces the deficit “by at least as much” as a House-passed repeal and replace plan. The CBO is aiming to provide information about the impact of the Graham-Cassidy legislation but “will not be able to provide point estimates of the effects on the deficit, health insurance coverage or premiums for at least several weeks.”
That means Republicans would have to push for a vote on their latest bill without a full CBO score, since the GOP is under pressure to hold a vote by next week. The Senate would have to take up the Graham-Cassidy proposal by the end of September in order to use a 2017 budgetary tool that would allow the GOP to avert a filibuster by the Democrats.
If the GOP holds to that schedule, they will have to vote on the bill without a complete CBO score, something Democrats will likely use as an argument against holding the vote.
Democrats, who oppose Graham-Cassidy, are insisting on a comprehensive CBO score ahead of the vote, but they are in the minority and do not control the floor schedule.
