Senate Delays Health Care Vote As Republicans Abandon Bill

WASHINGTON, DC — Republican leadership in the Senate delayed a vote on the new health care bill until after the July 4th recess, despite the initial plans to bring the legislation to the chamber floor by week's end.

The delay comes as little surprise to most observers of the legislative branch. On Monday, the Congressional Budget Office issued a report that found the plan would add 22 million people to rolls of the uninsured by 2026. (For more information on this and other political stories, subscribe to the White House Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

According to CNN reporter Manu Raju, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told senators that he was delaying the vote so he could garner more support from his fellow lawmakers. Several senators, including Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Dean Heller of Nevada have already expressed opposition to the bill.

See also: How To Call Your Senators About The Republican Health Care Bill

"Just came from WH," Paul tweeted after the news broke. "[President Trump] is open to making bill better. Is Senate leadership?"

McConnell told reporters that he and his colleagues were invited to the White House to discuss the process forward on health care reform.

"We continue the discussions within our conference on the differences that we have that we're continuing to try and litigate," McConnell said. "Consequently, we will not vote on this bill this week, but we're still working toward getting at least fifty people in a comfortable place."

"This is a big, complicated subject," he continued. "The status quo is unsustainable, for all the reasons we've discussed over and over and over again."

He added that legislation this large always takes a long time and a lot of work. However, it was McConnell's choice to rush to schedule a vote on the bill this week.

After the delay was announced, Senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia released a joint statement saying they could not support the bill in its current form. Both lawmakers cited a failure to address the opioid abuse epidemic as a key problem with the law.

"I think the Senate bill is going to be great," President Trump said at a meeting with about 40 senators at the White House. "This will be great if we get it done. And if we don't get it done, it's just going to be something that we're not going to like. And that's okay, and I understand that very well."

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images