A Republican senator on Tuesday introduced the first step toward repealing Obamacare.
Sen. Mike Enzi of Wyoming introduced a resolution that includes instructions for how committees can draft legislation that can be approved via a simple majority in the Senate as opposed to the 60 votes needed for a filibuster, under a procedural tool called budget reconciliation.
The resolution sets forth the appropriate budget levels for fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2026 and calls for two committees in the House, Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce, and one in the Senate, the Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, to draft legislation for repealing Obamacare by Jan. 27.
The move is pivotal because reconciliation bills must apply only to budgetary and spending levels to be approved by the Senate parliamentarian.
“The legislation will be combined for consideration on the floors of the respective chambers,” an Enzi statement said.
The House and Senate passed a reconciliation bill in 2015, which Obama vetoed. To get through Senate reconciliation rules, the legislation gutted major budgetary parts of Obamacare such as the law’s taxes and mandates for having insurance.
Conservative groups were upset that the 2015 bill didn’t completely gut the healthcare law, including the rating rules that require insurance plans to cover certain benefits and people with pre-existing conditions.
It remains to be seen what exactly the GOP will replace Obamacare with. Senate aides have previously said they plan to start quickly to draft a replacement.
Democrats on Tuesday slammed the GOP for planning to repeal Obamacare without a replacement ready.
“I think it’s not repeal and replace they are looking for,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., on the Senate floor Tuesday. “It is repeal and retreat.”
