Senate Republicans said Thursday they won’t vote on the House-passed bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, but will write their own legislation instead.
A Senate proposal is now being developed by a 12-member working group. It will attempt to incorporate elements of the House bill, senators said, but will not take up the House bill as a starting point and change it through the amendment process.
“The safest thing to say is there will be a Senate bill, but it will look at what the House has done and see how much of that we can incorporate in a product that works for us in reconciliation,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
“We are going to draft a Senate bill,” added Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. “That is what I’ve been told.”
The working group has been meeting for weeks, said Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the group.
“What we have to do is build a consensus among our conference and that is what the working group is designed to do,” Cornyn said. “To get to a compromise we can agree to and then present it to the larger conference.”
Cornyn said there is “really no deadline” for the group to produce a bill. “We are just working toward getting 51 votes,” he said.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did not indicate how the Senate would act. “As Congress considers this legislation, the administration will continue working to deliver relief and stabilize health markets, and Congress will continue to act on legislation to provide more choices and freedom in health care decisions,” he said.
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Senate won't vote on House-passed health care bill https://t.co/zqRj3FEK4Y pic.twitter.com/tUOoeck3QX
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) May 4, 2017
GOP Senate plans to draft a whole new bill rather than use House bill as starting point https://t.co/IlE6Z2NWq4 https://t.co/bo47XhoaJM
— Philip Klein (@philipaklein) May 4, 2017
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