Those who were hoping that to see the Senate GOP Obamacare repeal bill before it was sent over to the Congressional Budget Office shouldn’t hold their breath.
Republican staffers are close to finishing a draft, perhaps even by Monday evening, Axios reported, but aren’t planning to release it once they complete it and send it to the CBO for a score. It’s unclear just at what point of the process between now and when the Senate votes on the legislation that the full text becomes public.
Ongoing discussions around the draft, which could be tweaked to get consensus, was cited in the Axios report as being a reason it won’t be posted once it was done.
“We aren’t stupid,” a senior GOP aide told Axios.
It’s not uncommon for draft proposals to be sent to the CBO privately as part of the larger legislative efforts, as a way of providing feedback to members negotiating a bill. But Senate Republican also intend to bypass the committee process in their repeal effort, an extraordinary move, given the scope and the potential impact of their health care legislation.
The CBO analysis of the House repeal legislation, the American Health Care Act, estimated that it would cost 23 million people their health care coverage.
