By Katie Leslie and Caroline Kelly for DallasNews
WASHINGTON — Despite deep divisions within the GOP, the Senate could vote on a revamped health care bill as soon as next week, Texas Sen. John Cornyn said Monday, setting a new deadline for the party to pass a long-awaited Obamacare overhaul.
Cornyn has previously said the Senate will vote on legislation to dismantle the Affordable Care Act by August. But that deadline was sped up — and then missed — when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell urged a vote by late June, but later called it off amid widespread disagreement within the party.
“I couldn’t imagine leaving for August and leaving this undone. We have to get this done, and we’ve got three weeks to do it,” Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, told The Dallas Morning News.
If the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office releases a score of the latest draft of the Better Care Reconciliation Act this week, “we ought to be ready to roll next week,” he said. The details of the revamped measure, still under active negotiation, have not been made public.
His comments come as Republicans return from Fourth of July recess with mounting pressure to reach agreement. After hopes to coalesce behind a bill collapsed ahead of the holiday break, more than a few senators have said the first draft is essentially dead.
President Donald Trump, whose agenda has largely stalled in Congress, signaled impatience with the lack of progress in a tweet Monday morning.
“I cannot imagine that Congress would dare to leave Washington without a beautiful new HealthCare bill fully approved and ready to go!” he said on Twitter, adding fuel to an already brewing discussion over whether to cancel the month-long August recess in order to finish health care and make progress on other issues.
