House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) said Tuesday that House Republicans were working on reaching a consensus on a bill to replace Obamacare. But he emphasized that it was in its “conceptual stage.”
“Right now we’re just at that conceptual stage about how to move forward in a way that can get everybody to 216,” he said at his weekly press conference Tuesday. He refused to answer specific questions about the eventual bill’s content.
“It’s important that we don’t just win the votes of one caucus, or one group, but that we get the votes and the consensus of 216 of our members,” he continued. “It’s premature to say where we are or what we’re on because we’re at the conceptual stage right now.”
While President Donald Trump has attacked members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus for their opposition to the failed American Health Care Act, and White House press secretary Sean Spicer has spoken openly about trying to earn Democratic votes on an eventual health care bill, Ryan focused on his Republican conference.
“We don’t have bill text or an agreement yet,” he said, but: “Those productive conversations are happening right now.”
He added later: “We want to make sure that when we go, we have the votes to pass this bill; that we’ve got the consensus that we’ve long been looking for.”
