One by one, Democrats ask for GOP health bill

WASHINGTON — Democrats set to work Monday on a coordinated effort to slow the Senate’s work, holding latenight speeches to try to focus attention on how Republicans are crafting legislation to overhaul the nation’s health care system in private.

More than a dozen Democratic senators on Monday evening sat at their desks on the Senate floor and took turns standing and asking for committee hearings on the bill and for the text to be released for greater scrutiny.

Each time, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., calmly rose from his desk at the front of the chamber and objected to their requests.

“This is going to be a long evening because there are a lot of folks who are frustrated,” said Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said that in addition to the latenight speeches, Democrats intend to start objecting to all unanimous consent requests in the Senate, which are typically made to approve noncontroversial items “save for honorary resolutions.”

“These are merely the first steps we’re prepared to take in order to shine a light on the shameful Trumpcare bill and reveal to the public the GOP’s backroom deal-making,” Schumer said.

McConnell is hoping to weave together a bill dismantling much of former President Barack Obama’s health care law so the Senate can vote on it before leaving for its July Fourth recess. Republicans have held no committee meetings or votes on the measure, which McConnell is trying to produce from numerous private meetings among GOP senators.

Democrats, who solidly oppose the Republican effort but lack the votes to block it, are trying to capitalize on the secrecy and contrast it with the numerous committee meetings and votes that produced the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010.

McConnell will need to win the votes of 50 of the 52 GOP senators to push the bill through the Senate. It remains unclear if he’ll be able to write legislation that will attract enough votes.

McConnell said Monday that Republicans were making progress with the bill, but he did not discuss specifics.

“Senate Republicans will continue working because it’s clear that we cannot allow Americans’ health care to continue on its current downward trajectory under Obamacare, taking so many families with it,” McConnell said. “The Obamacare status quo is simply unsustainable. The American people deserve relief. And we’ll keep working to provide it.”

At one point Monday night, McConnell and Schumer, whose desks are near each other at the front of the chamber, had a tense exchange. McConnell said there would be “ample” opportunity for senators to review the measure and that it would be open for amendments.

“Will it be more than 10 hours?” Schumer replied.

“I think we’ll have ample opportunity to read and amend the bill,” McConnell responded, repeating himself.

“I rest my case,” Schumer said.

The GOP-run House narrowly approved its version of the health care legislation last month.

Republican senators have said they are working toward a goal of lowering insurance premiums for Americans, but the specifics of their bill have been closely guarded. McConnell and a small clutch of aides are crafting the bill as he consults with his GOP colleagues. Most of them say they don’t know what shape the bill is taking, and some have complained about the tightly controlled effort.

Community Catalyst Action Fund, an organization that opposes the GOP effort, kicked off an advertising campaign Monday pressuring five Republican senators not to vote for the legislation.

The group is spending $1.5 million targeting the lawmakers with ads that include a TV commercial that begins with the scene of a young boy wheezing in his bedroom and his mother rushing to get his asthma medication.

“When this happens, she isn’t thinking about the health care bill in Congress,” the narrator says. “She isn’t thinking that it’ll force her to choose between filling his prescriptions or paying their mortgage.”

The organization, which bills itself as a consumer health group, is targeting Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine, Dean Heller of Nevada and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia.

All except Collins come from states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. McConnell has proposed a three-year phase out of the expansion. Some Republicans, including Capito, have pushed for a more gradual seven-year rollback.