Politics

Confusion Remains As Senate Gears Up To Vote On Obamacare Repeal Procedural Vote

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Juliegrace Brufke Capitol Hill Reporter
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Senate Republicans Monday night still lacked the information they hoped to have ahead of moving forward on the motion to proceed on repealing Obamacare Tuesday.

While Senate leadership confirmed the vote will take place, lawmakers remain confused on what exactly they will be debating as they have not yet been provided any details.

“I don’t have a clue what we are going to be voting on — I have no information for you,” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told reporters Monday, adding he hopes they find out more at the GOP’s Senate lunch ahead of the vote.

It remains unclear whether leadership has the votes for the measure to pass as several members of the upper chamber said they won’t make a decision until they know more on what they are debating.

GOP Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said he would be willing to throw his support behind the procedural vote under the condition leadership allows members to vote on a straight repeal.

 “I think it depends on what we proceed to — I’ve offered to the leadership that I can vote for a motion to proceed if we’ll proceed to the clean repeal and see how we do on that one. If it doesn’t pass, they can put up – what’s their monstrosity, again? – oh, the insurance bailout bill,” he told reporters. “They can put that forward as another alternative.”

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas said members will have the opportunity to vote on a number of amendments, which he hopes will get people on board with the motion to proceed.

“I think there’s, unfortunately, become–– this idea’s become current that the sequence of votes makes a difference in the outcome. That’s not true,” he told reporters. “The final vote will determine what the outcome is. And so, what we’re trying to do is convince everybody that if they’d like to get a vote on their amendment, then they need to vote to proceed to the House bill. Then they’ll have that opportunity.”

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine — who has been critical of the way the Senate GOP constructed the Better Care Reconciliation Act and its call to roll back Medicaid funding — said she remains a no on the procedural vote.

“I am very concerned about proceeding to the House bill, the first version of the Senate bill, the second version of the Senate bill, the 2015 bill which would repeal and perhaps in two years come up with a replacement,” she said. “Now if we proceed tomorrow to a resolution to refer the issue to the Health Committee and the Finance Committee for 30 days, that I’d vote to proceed to.”

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