GOP hopes to revive health care bill

WASHINGTON — House Republicans struck an optimistic note Tuesday that they would be able to salvage their failed health care bill, but there was little indication of any concrete shift in the political fundamentals that led to its failure.

Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters that “some of those who were in the ‘no’ camp expressed a willingness to work on getting to yes and to making this work.” He did not, however, commit to a particular path forward.

“I’m not going to put a timeline on it, because this is too important to not get right and to put an artificial timeline on it,” he said.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer acknowledged talks but no imminent plans for reviving the bill. “Have we had some discussions and listened to ideas? Yes,” he told reporters. “Are we actively planning an immediate strategy? Not at this time.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that the “status quo” would remain after Trump and Ryan “went all out” to pass their bill: “I’m sorry that didn’t work, but our Democratic friends now have the law that they wrote in place, and we’ll see how that works out.”

Ryan’s comments came after a closed-door House GOP conference meeting that stretched to nearly two hours. Members ejected staff from the room in the Capitol basement and, according to several members present, proceeded to line up at microphones to deliver calls for party unity.

“Whatever your challenges are, give them a boot in the backside and you overcome them,” Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., said to reporters, recounting his remarks to his colleagues. “Health care has to be revisited. We can’t leave this alone.”

Ryan told members that “we’re still going to try to find a way to get this done,” said Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C. “We spent years writing this bill — we’re not just going to walk away from it.”

On Monday, Ryan told donors on a private call that the health care push would continue “on two tracks” as the House pursues other priorities of President Donald Trump.

He pledged to “lay out the path forward on health care and all the rest of the agenda” at a coming weekend retreat in Florida.

While members of all ideological stripes expressed hopes that the American Health Care Act could be resurrected in the coming weeks, none could say specifically what they would be willing to accept this week that they would not accept last week— when a frantic push from Trump and House GOP leaders left hard-line conservatives and moderates opposing the bill.

Rep. Paul A. Gosar, R-Ariz., a member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, said Tuesday that “everybody wants it to happen now” and that “once the groups come together, they’re not that far off.”

But Gosar said his view of the legislation had not changed: “We’ve promised people lower premiums — that’s what we’ve got to do.”

Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., another Freedom Caucus member, also said he believed the impasse would be short-lived: “We’re going to get to yes, we’re going to get a better bill, and everyone is going to be very happy in the end.”

House leaders made a significant change to the bill last week to address Freedom Caucus concerns, allowing states to undo federal “essential health benefits” established under the Affordable Care Act — also called “Obamacare.” But that change led to several moderate members pulling their support for the bill.

At least one member said he would not wait for leadership to force new action on health care. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., a Freedom Caucus member, said Tuesday that he and other authors of various Obamacare repeal bills were discussing plans to force votes on their measures using a procedural shortcut known as a discharge petition.

If a discharge petition reaches 218 signatures, the speaker is forced to put it to a vote. “We will find out who is truly for repeal of Obamacare and who is not,” Brooks said.

Brooks said that he preferred to force a vote on a 2015 ACA repeal bill, which passed Congress but was vetoed by President Barack Obama. But he said he also was considering filing a discharge petition on his own bill — a one-line repeal of Obamacare.

Ryan said he was focused for the time being on getting his fellow Republicans to work as a team.