Days after the spectacular collapse of the Republican effort to repeal Obamacare, House leaders said Tuesday it’s not dead yet – but they offered few details on timing, how divisions within the party would be overcome or any new provision on which they could agree.
The Senate was skeptical, meanwhile, and the White House, which has suggested it may work with Democrats on a fix, said there’s no immediate plan to revive the push.
But House Republicans, who have promised for seven years to repeal the 2010 law, said they’ve found new resolve in the wake of their embarrassing inability on Friday to vote on a measure that would have replaced the law known as the Affordable Care Act.
“The general consensus was ‘Let’s get it done,’” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., who supported the bill last week. “It’s something the American people have demanded that we do. We’re going to press on until we get it done.”
READ: Can Republicans govern if they can’t keep a promise they’ve made for 7 years?
The renewed effort came as House Republicans met behind closed doors for the first time since Friday afternoon when House Speaker Paul Ryan was forced to pull the GOP substitute legislation from the floor, lacking the votes among his members to get it passed and raising questions about Republicans’ ability to govern.
Conservative members believed the legislation didn’t go far enough to repeal the Affordable Care Act, while more moderate members were worried about estimates that more than 24 million Americans could lose coverage under the bill.
Ryan, who conceded on Friday that President Barack Obama’s signature accomplishment would remain the “law of the land,” spoke with Trump over the weekend and went to the White House on Monday. After the meeting Tuesday he suggested some of his members may be ready for compromise.
“Some of those who were in the ‘no’ camp expressed a willingness to work on getting to ‘yes’ and to making this work,” Ryan said. “We want to get it right. We’re going to keep talking to each other until we get it right.”
Members of the House Freedom Caucus, which Trump has blamed for the loss, said they would be open to finding a fix.
“We’re looking at all kinds of options to get to yes,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the caucus chairman.
Ryan declined to lay out a time line “because this is too important to not get right and to put an artificial time line on,” though the House last week had unsuccessfully tried to time its repeal vote on the seventh anniversary of Obama signing the bill into law.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, meanwhile, appeared resigned that the battle over Obamacare is over, at least for now.
“Our Democratic friends ought to be pretty happy about that, because we have the existing law in place,” McConnell told reporters. “And I think we’re just going to have to see how that works out. We believe it will not work out.”
Some of those who were in the ‘no’ camp expressed a willingness to work on getting to ‘yes’ and to making this work.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Asked about House plans for a do-over, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the No. 3 Senate Republican, said it’s “entirely” up to the House.
“It’s going to be entirely up to them and what they can pass,” he said. “That’s a calculation they’re going to have to make.”
The White House was less committal. Trump, who had initially blamed Democrats for the bill’s collapse, in recent days has turned fire on the House Freedom Caucus, tweeting it had snatched defeat “from the jaws of victory.” And he suggested in a tweet that Democrats would want to work with him if the law implodes.
Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the administration has talked with “a lot of individuals on both sides of the aisle” but said there was no “immediate strategy.”
We’re looking at all kinds of options to get to yes.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., the Freedom Caucus
EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE
Though Trump and Ryan have talked several times, Spicer said the White House has not “picked a strategy and we’re going to go with this group or that group.”
The White House and lawmakers face a complicated “balancing act” in making changes to the legislation, Spicer said.
“Can you add additional folks on without pushing additional folks off?” he said.
Lawmakers are also constrained by technical reasons, with the House and Senate now using a reconciliation process that makes it easier to pass legislation without Democratic support.