The most important debate about the Republican agenda won’t take place on Capitol Hill next week.
It’s happening in Philadelphia, where House and Senate Republicans plus President Trump will huddle for two days of closed-door planning and discussions about how to turn the party’s ambitious agenda into legislation.
The House will be in session only two days and will take up one major bill — legislation to permanently ban taxpayer-funded abortion. The Senate will continue hearings and votes on Trump’s cabinet nominees.
Lawmakers will depart Wednesday for their retreat, which will focus on the party’s long-promised pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The party has pledged to accomplish this task quickly, which makes the joint retreat a critical time for lawmakers to plan face-to-face with a new commander in chief who has occasionally confused them with his Twitter declarations.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said lawmakers will have “a full, exhausting conversation” at the retreat about constructing measures that can pass both the House and Senate, a move that will require significant GOP unity.
Trump has warned Congress, on Twitter, to “be careful” about repealing the law without a replacement. That quick message has caused the GOP to shift from an earlier plan to repeal the law and replace it slowly over months or even years.
Now they will move much faster to turn GOP health insurance reform proposals into legislation.
“We’re looking at exactly what is the best way to deliver on all of those reforms,” Ryan said last week. “And that’s the process we’re going through right now.”
Policy retreats are an annual event for both parties. Last year, Democrats and Republicans both held their retreats in Baltimore.
But for the first time in a decade, GOP lawmakers next week will strategize with a sitting president. And they’ll plot a GOP agenda that stands a significant chance of becoming law rather than dying in Congress or earning a presidential veto.
President Trump has confirmed he will attend the retreat, which will take place at a hotel in downtown Philadelphia.
Republican leaders and Trump have promised to repeal and replace Obamacare “concurrently.” That means GOP lawmakers have to come up with health insurance reform legislation by the time they vote to repeal the law, which they have pledged to do quickly.
Republicans at the retreat will also be planning major legislation to reform the nation’s tax code. Republicans plan to try to take up tax reform later this year and complete it before the long August recess.
