House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., set a goal that Congress will be done legislating for Obamacare this year, but it will take longer to implement the changes.
Ryan’s comments at a press conference Tuesday came a few days after President Trump told Bill O’Reilly in an interview that Obamacare will take more than a year to be repealed and replaced.
Ryan attempted to massage that statement by noting that legislation on Obamacare will get done this year, but changes will have to occur at an administrative level.
“The legislation is going to be done this year,” he said. “The question is how long it takes to effectuate this change.”
The Senate plans to vote later this week on Trump’s Health and Human Services pick Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga.
Currently four House and Senate panels are crafting legislation to repeal the law. Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., chairwoman of the House Budget Committee, said that committees would start holding hearings later this month.
Ryan has previously said that he expects legislation to repeal the law to get a vote by the end of March. The plan is to gut the law using the procedural move reconciliation to escape a filibuster in the Senate.
