Republican leaders in Congress along with the Trump administration are making last efforts to repeal and replace ObamaCare, The Hill reports. Earlier in September, the GOP efforts were nearly done for, as Republicans veered for tax reform.
“I’ve never felt better about where we’re at,” Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement following a senators meeting with Vice President Mike Pence to negotiate the new health-care proposal.
“At the end of the day, I really believe we’re going to get 50 Republican votes,” Pence added.
Other GOP senators said the measure has a real prospect of success.
“Our members are thinking about it, they’re studying it. They’re talking to the authors of the bill. But I think we’ve made good headway,” said Senate Republican Conference Chairman John Thune.
The ObamaCare repeal has been greatly helped by the agreement made between President Donald Trump and Democrats early September to fund hurricane relief and delay the federal spending and debt limit battle until December.
Republicans at the time panned Trump for cutting GOP leaders out of the loop, but now his decision looks like a masterstroke as it has created time on the schedule to take a second shot at health-care reform.
The upcoming deadline of Sept. 30 has also played a leading role in the rising prospects of the legislation. If an ObamaCare replacement bill isn’t signed into law by then under budget reconciliation rules, it would need 60 votes to pass.
Under the special rules, 50 votes plus a tie-breaker from Pence would send it to the House, where leading Republicans have indicated they would pass it and send it to Trump’s desk before the end of the month.
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