Vice President Mike Pence can overrule a Senate parliamentarian and bulk up the House healthcare bill to include conservative-favored reforms, like letting insurance companies sell across state lines, according to Sen. Ted Cruz.
The Texas Republican, who had dinner with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, says Pence, as Senate president, should be ready to overrule parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough to expand the scope of the Obamacare replacement bill, The Hill reported.
According to The Hill, House Republicans left several measures favored by conservatives out of the bill because MacDonough is likely to rule them ineligible for protection from a Democratic filibuster.
Cruz argues Pence can decide what and what isn’t eligible for special procedural protection, The Hill reports – and could set aside her decision.
Medical-malpractice tort reform, another idea popular with conservatives, could then be included in the bill, Cruz says, The Hill reported.
"Every one of these reforms has an enormous budgetary impact. An impact of billions of dollars if not hundreds of billions of dollars," he said.