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Turns out an increasingly "frantic" Trump administration is trying desperately to resuscitate the awful American Health Care Act. They apparently continue to believe that making it even worse will bring it back from the dead. As long as they do it fast enough that there are no hearings on it, no debate on it, no one sees the text of the changes to it, and no CBO score is produced (makes sense, given that the last CBO score found the GOP's bill stripping 24 million people of their insurance and spiking premiums over the next two years).
And yet despite Trump bizarrely claiming today the House will pass something next week, the House doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. Which is a shame, because the last time they tried this was so much fun.
White House pressures GOP leaders on Obamacare showdown next week
And yet despite Trump bizarrely claiming today the House will pass something next week, the House doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. Which is a shame, because the last time they tried this was so much fun.
White House pressures GOP leaders on Obamacare showdown next week
The White House does not schedule House floor votes. And while some senior administration officials suggested Thursday that a vote will occur next week, multiple House GOP sources told POLITICO that is unlikely.
Indeed, the vote is not currently on the calendar. Nor do Republican insiders think it’s even possible, as Congress will reconvene Tuesday after a two-week Easter recess. That would leave them with one day to whip votes — an unlikely time frame for such a heavy legislative lift.
“The question is whether it can get 216 votes in the House, and the answer isn't clear at this time,” a senior GOP aide said. “There is no legislative text and therefore no agreement to do a whip count on.”
The conflicting narratives suggest top administration officials and House Republican leaders are either miscommunicating — or, more likely, that White House sources are squeezing Speaker Paul Ryan and his team, telling them to move quickly. Notably, the same senior White House officials who suggested a vote would occur next week also said the text of a new deal will likely be circulated Friday "or by the weekend."
The claim perplexed some GOP insiders who don’t expect legislative text for a few days, at the earliest.
The back-and-forth highlights just how impatient Trump is growing with Congress. Administration officials are feeling inordinate pressure to advance the legislation out of the House, fearing that failure to repeal the health care law will dominate coverage of the administration's first 100 days, which end next week, officials say.