Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) predicted that Senate leadership won’t make a final decision on bringing up an ObamaCare repeal proposal until after a closed-door lunch on Tuesday.
“I think we’re going to need to have a meeting of our conference tomorrow … so we can kind of see where everybody is before there will be any news,” Cornyn, the second highest-ranking GOP senator, told reporters after a meeting in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-Ky.) office Monday evening.
Republicans huddle every Tuesday as part of a caucus lunch where they discuss key agenda items and what is on the Senate floor. Vice President Pence frequently attends the closed-door meetings.
Cornyn’s comments came shortly before Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) became the third GOP senator to come out as a hard “no” against the bill sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.), leaving leadership without the votes needed to pass the legislation.
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McConnell signaled last week he would bring up the health-care legislation this week, though he’s remained tight-lipped as GOP senators have come out against it.
Marc Short, the White House director of legislative affairs, predicted over the weekend that a vote is likely on Wednesday.
And Graham said on Monday evening that he wanted a vote to get his colleagues on the record even if it was clear it would fail.
“I believe in my idea and if you disagree vote ‘no.’ The whole idea is to hold people accountable,” he said, while acknowledging he didn’t know if there would be a vote.
The Graham-Cassidy legislation would replace ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion and insurance subsidies with block grants to the states.
Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the No. 3 Senate Republican, said the decision rested with McConnell but questioned if he would bring it up if it was clear they would not be able to pass the bill.
He acknowledged that with Collins’s announcement they would need a senator to flip their position on the health-care bill, but that senators were continuing to talk to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
“It would involve somebody having to be in a different place than they are today,” Thune said. “[The chances] are probably not real good.”
But GOP senators appear skeptical that leadership will force them to go through another health-care vote, which could be used as political fodder in 2018 and 2020, if they know it will fail, like their proposal in July.
Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), asked if he thought McConnell would bring up the health-care legislation, said “I doubt it.”
“I’ll be honest, it seems unlikely that we’ll be voting on this,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) separately told constituents over the weekend.