GOPer: Senate’s Secret Process Makes It Look Like They’re ‘Trying To Hide’

UNITED STATES - MARCH 3: Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., leaves the House Republican Conference meeting at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington on Tuesday, March 3, 2015. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) (CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
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Rep. Pete King (R-NY) on Wednesday said Republican senators’ closed-door deliberations over the Senate bill to repeal and replace Obamacare makes it look “like they’re trying to hide something.”

“As much as possible, you should do things in public,” King said in an interview with radio show “L.I. in the AM,” flagged by CNN’s KFILE.

He said private meetings are necessary “all the time” for legislative business, but that there should be “more public debate” on the repeal bill.

“It looks like they’re trying to hide something and it just adds to conspiracy theories and everything else,” King said.

“Listen, all of democracy can’t be open all the time, there are things that have to be done behind closed doors, that’s just common sense,” he added. “Having said that, that should be kept to a minimum, and so I think that if this is too secretive, it’s going to put a cloud over the whole final product.”

King voted for the House’s version of the legislation, which the senators on the working group ignored in favor of writing their own bill from scratch.

Confusion on the Senate bill is not limited to Republican representatives; GOP senators outside the so-called working group drafting the bill are just as much in the dark as their Democratic counterparts when it comes to the legislation, which is expected to be revealed on Thursday and put to a vote as soon as next week.

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