Senate Republicans said Wednesday they will try to revive legislation that would repeal parts of Obamacare and replace it with a plan that reduces the growth of Medicaid and offers insurance plans outside of the current healthcare law mandates.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, said lawmakers are trying to win over GOP holdouts and will continue negotiating this week, with the goal of voting on the Better Care Reconciliation Act. That’s the same bill that was pulled from consideration because it lacked the GOP votes needed to proceed to debate.
Cornyn said they will keep working with holdouts to try to win them over by next week, when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., plans to move forward on a procedural vote that would allow debate to begin.
The renewed effort came immediately after almost every Republican senator met in the White House with President Trump, who urged them to keep working on it and said they shouldn’t take an August recess without progress.
McConnell has already threatened to hold a vote on a bill to repeal Obamacare with a two -ear delay, which the Senate passed under former President Barack Obama in 2015. But GOP leaders are hoping they instead will be able to move forward with the legislation that replaces the troubled healthcare law.
“Hopefully they will get sorted out and we will be able to vote on the bill,” Cornyn said. “If we get an agreement here, my preference would be to start with the BCRA,” Cornyn said, “And I think we are getting closer.”
Skeptical Republicans met in McConnell’s office following the White House meeting.
“We are still working on it and trying to improve it,” Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.C., said as he headed into McConnell’s office following the White House meeting. “And hopefully we’ll get more people to an agreement.”
But it is not clear if Trump has swayed key centrists to support the motion to proceed on the Senate bill.
None of the holdouts who opposed the Senate replace bill have publicly said they would vote yes on the motion to proceed.
Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky, and Jerry Moran of Kansasall said they would oppose the motion to proceed to the Senate bill that partially repeals and replaces Obamacare.
Collins said after the meeting she remains a no but she had a good meeting.
Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said that he remains undecided on a motion to proceed and that he is continuing to have conversations.
“There are so many moving parts so I don’t want to commit to anything,” Heller said.
Heller was the subject of a barb from Trump during the lunch, when the president said he wondered if Heller still wanted to be a senator. Heller is up for re-election in 2018 and is in a tight race.
Heller seemed to laugh off the remark.
“That is just President Trump being President Trump,” he said.
