House Speaker Paul Ryan expressed confidence Wednesday the American Health Care Act will gain enough votes to pass Thursday and said President Donald Trump's active "engagement and involvement" in lobbying for the bill was "encouraging."
"We have never seen this kind of presidential engagement and involvement with our members before," the Wisconsin Republican told Dana Perino on Fox News. "It's very constructive. It's very refreshing.
"The president and vice president are rolling up their sleeves, getting involved."
The House is scheduled to vote Thursday on the ACHA, but members of the conservative Freedom Caucus are saying that at least 24 of its members will not support the bill.
The caucus has vowed to formally oppose the legislation if major changes were not made by Wednesday night.
"We are getting a lot of Freedom Caucus members to support this bill," Ryan said. "We have been adding votes all week.
"There are people who want to get various provisions in the bill. We have the broker compromises to make sure we draft legislation that can actually pass."
Ryan declined to say whether he would postpone the vote if he lacked the number necessary to pass ACHA.
"I'm not going to get into hypotheticals," he told Perino. "We're working toward the goal line here. We're adding votes by the day.
"We're not losing votes. We're adding votes. We feel like we are getting close."
He added that Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were "leading on this, helping broker compromises that are very constructive to improve the bill, that make good refinements to the bill to make it better.
"We want to make sure we keep the consensus so that we can actually pass the bill," Ryan said. "When we pass the bill here in the House, it can be brought up for a vote in the Senate and not filibustered."
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