Senate

Cornyn: Senate will vote on ObamaCare repeal by early April

by Jordain Carney - 03/01/17 6:34 PM ET

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) predicted after a closed-door meeting that the Senate will take up an ObamaCare repeal bill by Congress’ Easter recess, giving lawmakers little more than a month.

Asked if he still thought lawmakers would have a vote during this work period, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican said “yes.”

Pressed by reporters if he meant a vote in the Senate, Cornyn added “yeah.”

The timeline would give senators until April 7 — when lawmakers are expected to leave town for a two-week recess — to coalesce behind and vote on one plan.

Though GOP lawmakers have campaigned for years on repealing and replacing ObamaCare, they are publicly struggling to unite behind a single idea of how to do it.

{mosads}Cornyn’s comments come after Senate Republicans huddled in a closed-door meeting with Reps. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Kevin Brady (R-Texas) to discuss ObamaCare strategy and a forthcoming plan from the House.

Cornyn said the two GOP House members “talked about what they had in mind” and took questions.

“People needed to hear what the House was thinking … and it’s not a finished product,” he said.

Most GOP senators declined to comment coming out of Wednesday’s meeting. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) told reporters that the House lawmakers “gave us information and, you know, gave their opinion on how it’s going to work.”

The House is poised to move forward with an ObamaCare repeal and replacement as early as next week.

Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, told reporters that the committee would hold a mark up next week.

The move comes despite public divisions among Republicans about how to repeal ObamaCare and the timeline for replacing it.

A leaked draft of a House bill circulated last week has earned pushback from House conservatives as well as key GOP senators.

Cornyn noted that the draft “is not current” but couldn’t give a price tag for the evolving GOP plan and noted that the “amount and how” behind tax credits — a sticking point for conservatives — haven’t been decided.

GOP Sens. Mike Lee (Utah), Ted Cruz (Texas) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — though not mentioning the House draft — demanded “full repeal” of ObamaCare on Twitter earlier this week.

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) noted during a weekly press conference congressional Republicans and the White House are not yet in the “same place” over ObamaCare.

Cornyn, however, downplayed intra-party divisions, calling it a “public part” of otherwise behind-the-scenes discussions.

“We realize there’s got to be absolute coordination between the House and the Senate because of the thin margins that we have,” he told reporters.

Tags John Cornyn Kevin Brady Mike Lee Mitch McConnell Rand Paul