It's full speed ahead on an Obamacare repeal — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell asaid the GOP will move forward with their plan in a vote next week.
"For the information of all senators, at the request of the President [Trump] and Vice President [Pence] and after consulting with our members, we will have the vote on the motion to proceed to the Obamacare repeal bill early next week," McConnell said from the Senate floor on Tuesday night, The Hill reported.
The Senate is expected to vote on whether or not to take up the House-passed healthcare bill, and offer the Obamacare repeal proposal as an amendment to that legislation, according to The Hill.
Still, the GOP leadership appears short of the simple majority needed to even open debate on a healthcare bill — much less a repeal.
With a slim 52-seat majority, McConnell can only afford to lose two GOP senators and still let Vice President Mike Pence break a tie.
But GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia are expected to hold out, and vote "no" on proceeding to the House bill.
According to The Hill, Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, separately told reporters on a conference call it wasn't "appropriate" to repeal Obamacare without a replacement, though he hasn't said if he'd vote against taking up the House bill. It's also unclear whether Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain will return to Washington in time for the vote; he's recovering from surgery.
"At some point we need to find out where the votes are,” Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said, The Hill reported.
McConnell’s suggested after a closed-door GOP lunch on Tuesday that he's ready to move forward with a vote even if the procedural motion fails on the floor, since it would at least show the public — and the White House — where the bill stands.
Earlier in the day, McConne said the proposal would have a two-year delay on implementation. That, he said, "would give us the opportunity to work out a complete replacement on a bipartisan basis with our Democratic friends."
McConnell's comments acknowledged that his latest plan, which he proposed Monday, was effectively dead after three moderate Republicans said they could not repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement.
"As I indicated last night, it's pretty clear that there are not 50 Republicans at the moment to vote for a replacement for Obamacare," McConnell said.
His remarks also capped a frantic 24 hours after Collins and three other Republicans — Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Jerry Moran of Kansas — said they would not back the second version of McConnell's healthcare plan.
"Everybody's given it their best shot," McConnell said. "And as of today, we just simply do not have 50 senators who can agree on what ought to replace the existing law.
"What we do have is a vote that many of us made two years ago at a time when the president of the United States [President Barack Obama] would not sign the legislation that would repeal Obamacare and with a two-year delay, give us an opportunity to build something better on a bipartisan basis.
"That's what I sense most of our members would like to vote on now — and we'll be doing that in the near future."
Since Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, Republicans in the House have voted more than 50 times to repeal it.
The Senate last voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2015.
President Donald Trump said before McConnell's comments Tuesday that he was "certainly disappointed" at the latest healthcare developments, declaring that it would be "a lot easier" to allow Obamacare to fail, and "we're probably in that position."
During the Senate process, McConnell and other GOP leaders came under fire from party members and Democrats for crafting the various healthcare proposals in secret.
The majority leader openly called on Democrats to work with his party to craft a replacement plan for Obamacare.
"We will have demonstrated that Republicans, by themselves, are not prepared at this particular point to do a replacement," McConnell told reporters.
"And that doesn't mean that problems all go away, and you'll have to look at our committee chairman and their ranking members.
"My suspicion is there will be hearings about the crisis that we have, and we'll have to see what the way forward is."