If the House of Representatives ends up passing a new version of the American Health Care Act in the next couple of weeks, Republicans can thank the White House—for staying mostly out of the way. While both President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence continue to speak with both House leadership and individual Republican members, the White House has taken a much quieter approach to finding the votes.
No longer are high-ranking administration officials—like Pence, Steve Bannon, or even the president himself—making daily trips to Capitol Hill to lobby the entire House GOP conference or groups like the conservative Freedom Caucus or the moderate Tuesday Group. Instead, the administration is contacting members one by one to find coverts, while signaling that, unlike the last attempt to pass the AHCA, there’s no reason to rush the vote this time.
Pence, always the administration’s lead for congressional outreach, is courting recalcitrant Republican members on the phone and in person regularly. On Monday evening, the vice president met with three different Republican House members individually to discuss the AHCA. And Tom Price, the secretary of Health and Human Services who previously served in the House, is talking with moderate members about the regulatory side of how the administration would enforce the AHCA.
The White House’s goal is to assuage concerns about the Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill and a proposed amendment to it that is being mischaracterized as gutting Obamacare’s “pre-existing conditions” provision. (President Trump has seemingly added to the confusion, but the new amendment would keep the provision in place while changing how those insurance customers are charged for coverage.)
Beyond these direct and one-on-one appeals, the White House has backed off its more aggressive push before this week to hold a vote on the bill in the House. That push was part of an effort by some in the West Wing, primarily chief of staff Reince Priebus, to rack up a legislative win before President Trump’s 100th day in office. But with that marker now past, the White House is less, well, pushy.
“It would be our hope that it’s this week,” said one senior administration official, who added the White House would like a vote as early as Wednesday. But the president, who speaks daily with House speaker Paul Ryan or majority leader Kevin McCarthy, is not expressing urgency about passing the AHCA as soon as possible.
Repealing Obamacare is supposedly a legislative priority for the White House, but President Trump has others, including tax reform. Most of his conversations with Hill leaders in the last couple of days, I’m told, have concerned the omnibus spending bill to fund the government through the rest of the year. That bill is likely headed for a vote on Wednesday.
And the AHCA? Paul Ryan has said the House will vote “when we have the votes.” That seems to be just fine by the White House.
