House GOP leadership told members of the House of Representatives on Wednesday evening that the House will vote on a revised version of the American Health Care Act (AHCA) on Thursday.
The announcement comes after a tumultuous process for the bill, which has seen previously scheduled votes pulled after Speaker Paul Ryan failed to accumulate enough Republican support on prior attempts to pass the bill.
House Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) stepped up and helped negotiate, with Tuesday Group co-chairman Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), a revised version of the bill–dubbed the MacArthur amendment–that revived the effort and collected presumably enough Republican votes to pass the bill.
Meadows’ efforts in no small part seem to have succeeded where Ryan failed, rallying his House Republican colleagues behind a years-long campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare–despite the fact this bill doesn’t constitute a full repeal of the previous president’s signature law.
Vice President Mike Pence, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, and others have worked alongside congressional Republicans, especially Meadows–who has emerged as a force in the negotiating process so strong some have begun calling him the acting speaker of the House in the wake of Ryan’s failures–to bring the new bill to the brink of passage.
Vice President Mike Pence visited the Capitol building Wednesday afternoon to reassure lawmakers about the Obamacare repeal bill.
At the Capitol this afternoon for various meetings on health care and other important issues with @SeemaCMS & @SecPriceMD. pic.twitter.com/4P4qHVEDfj
— Vice President Mike Pence (@VP) May 3, 2017
Meadows, in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, commended the actions of President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Congressman Tom MacArthur for bringing the Obamacare repeal package this close to passage. He said:
Not only have we made good progress, we have to get give a good shout out to Tom MacArthur and the President and the Vice President for their efforts in the last couple of weeks. It would be a mistake to suggest that had Tom MacArthur, the President, and the Vice President have not gotten involved in this process, then we would not have the options now for everyone to consider. Tom has worked closely hard with Energy and Commerce Chairman Greg Walden and the committee to make sure that what we do is keeping in line with repealing and replacing Obamacare and drives down premiums and keeps pre-existing conditions.
Meadows told Breitbart News, “I fully expect that we will repeal most aspects of Obamacare by the end of May. It may have been a deterrent in the first 100 days, but by the end of the first 120 days or so it will be seen as a significant accomplishment. It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish, as the song used to say. We will have an excellent finish.”
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