It’s looking more and more like Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is sticking to his goal of having a Senate vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act before the end of the month, even though legislative text hasn’t been released yet and major divisions remain among the Republican conference.
On the heels of reports that McConnell is pushing forward with the fast-track process, Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) previewed the timeline as he understood it on MSNBC Tuesday morning. According to Corker, GOP senators will receive a rundown on the bill at a closed-door meeting Wednesday and then see legislative text on Thursday. That gives them just one week to review it for a vote planned before the end of next week, ahead of lawmakers’ July 4 recess.
“We will work around the clock to make sure that we understand what’s in it and we’ll just see,” Corker said, before reiterating his previous criticisms of the highly opaque process Republicans have used to hammer out a health care deal that bypassed public hearings and Democratic input. That lack of transparency has not prompted Corker to withhold his vote on the final bill, however.
“At the end of the day, that doesn’t preclude my responsibilities as a senator to either vote yes or no based on the substance that’s in it, and I certainly look forward to diving into that substance,” he said.
Senate Republicans will see a Congressional Budget Office score before the vote, unlike their House counterparts. According to the Wall Street Journal, the hope is that the CBO analysis will be finished by early next week.
