It will be do or die for the Obamacare repeal effort in Congress next week, which is already promising high drama as lawmakers again take the federal government to the brink of a partial government shutdown.
House lawmakers return Monday with a handful of days to finish a critical long-term spending bill. At the same time, GOP leaders hope to move a measure to repeal and replace the healthcare law. The healthcare legislation could represent the last best chance to get a bill across the finish line that at least partially upholds the GOP promise to repeal Obamacare.
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The House adjourned Friday without voting on a revised bill to repeal and replace Obamacare.
The bill was amended last week to win the support of more conservative members. But the changes, which permit the states to seek waivers for Obamacare mandates, chased away moderate support, leaving the bill short of the 217 votes needed to pass it.
Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday said the bill is not on the schedule for next week, but could be added.
“I anticipate the members reading through it this weekend and as soon as possible we will bring the bill to the floor,” said McCarthy, R-Calif.
House Republicans are likely to move quickly if they come up with the votes to pass the measure. McCarthy noted Friday the text of the legislation and the recent changes have been posted since last week, negating the need for the traditional three-day waiting period.
While the GOP tries to sort out the details on healthcare, it will also shoot for passage of a spending bill for the rest of the fiscal year.
Bipartisan negotiators from both the House and Senate are close to reaching a deal on a five-month bill to fund the government, GOP leaders said. Democrats, however, are warning there are dozens of so-called poison pill provisions that threaten a deal by May 5, when the week-long funding extension runs out.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said there were 70 outstanding poison pill provisions that Democrats oppose, including a GOP provision to overturn the Obama-era fiduciary rule.
A top aide to the House Appropriations Committee told the Washington Examiner, “Those kinds of issues remain under discussion.”
This week’s deadline is especially critical. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers warned they will not support another short-term extension, known formally as a continuing resolution, which keeps funding at the previous fiscal year level.
“We Democrats are in the position of not supporting additional continuing resolutions,” Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Friday.
Lawmakers face a host of other issues as well next week. The House will vote on legislation to expand sanctions against North Korea, which has been increasingly testing weapons and threatening the west.
The bill, sponsored by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., would require the U.S. to reconsider adding North Korea to the list of state sponsors of terrorism and would target North Korea shipping and use of international ports.
Republicans will take up a separate bill that would allow employees to take time off in lieu of overtime pay, which the GOP said would provide much-needed work flexibility for families. Democrats mostly oppose the bill and argue it would ultimately be harmful to employees, who would lose pay and not be able to fully control when to take compensatory time off.
The Senate, meanwhile, plans to do little else but wait for the House to act on spending and healthcare legislation. The Senate schedule so far includes a vote on Monday to advance the nomination of Jay Clayton to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Senate Republican aides said more nomination votes are possible, as well as consideration of House-passed bills repealing Obama-era regulations under the Congressional Review Act.
