Republicans from across the GOP spectrum are finally coming together to hammer out the details of a plan to repeal and replace Obamacare but are not yet prepared to put forward a bill, White House legislative affairs director Marc Short told reporters on Wednesday.
“Now we’re all in the same room having the same conversation,” Short said of talks between Republican factions in the House.
Short downplayed reports earlier this week that the White House was working to put forward the text of new healthcare legislation as soon as today, calling such stories “erroneous.”
He said Republicans had begun to form a consensus “conceptually” around what the Obamacare reform bill should contain. However, Short did not express confidence that the plan would come to fruition before Congress leaves Washington for a two-week recess on Friday.
After White House officials and House Republicans spent weeks conducting a series of high-profile negotiations over healthcare last month, their original bill failed to attract sufficient support, and leadership pulled the legislation before a highly-anticipated vote.
Talks resumed quietly over the past two weeks, but many of the same ideological divisions within the GOP have prevented much progress.
