Republican health bill: Democrats pledge Senate standstill over secrecy

Democrats plan to delay vote by forcing bill into committee, says party aide, as Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren plan Facebook event

Democrats have vowed to bring Senate business to a halt this week, in protest against secrecy around a Republican attempt to repeal Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) that will affect access to coverage for millions of Americans.

Beginning on Monday night, Democrats will begin an effort to delay a vote on the Senate health bill by forcing the House-passed healthcare bill into committee, a senior Democratic aide said. Tactics will include procedural maneuvers that will disrupt routine order and late-night floor speeches demanding greater transparency.

Senior party figures, who were reported to be planning to focus on Donald Trump’s reported description of the House bill as “mean”, also launched a campaign urging Americans to speak out against the healthcare plan and share their stories about how the ACA, known as Obamacare, has helped them. In a video, several female senators shared their constituents’ stories.

The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, said he did not know whether legislative staff had been briefed on the Senate healthcare bill. He added that he was unaware of the president’s view on the lack of transparency around the Republican healthcare bill. He declined to comment on whether the president believed the House-passed bill was “mean” and said the administration felt “very good” about the progress the Senate is making on the bill.

Also on Monday, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts rallied supporters against the Republican plan in a Facebook Live event.

“Republicans are drafting this bill in secret because they’re ashamed of it, plain and simple,” said Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, in a statement.

“These are merely the first steps we’re prepared to take in order to shine a light on this shameful Trumpcare bill and reveal to the public the GOP’s true intentions: to give the uber-wealthy a tax break while making middle class Americans pay more for less health care coverage.

“If Republicans won’t relent and debate their healthcare bill in the open for the American people to see, then they shouldn’t expect business as usual in the Senate.”

It’s unclear how long Democrats will continue their protest, but the aide said the senators are unlikely to relent as long as Republicans continue to shield their bill from the public.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, has said he would like to hold a vote before the chamber leaves for a week-long recess over the Fourth of July holiday. That leaves just 10 business days to draft a final version of the bill, receive a “score” from the Congressional Budget Office and hold a vote. The Senate is not expected to hold any hearings.

In a floor speech on Monday, McConnell outlined why Republicans are working to “move in a different direction on healthcare” but did not offer any details on the substance of their plan.

“The Obamacare status quo is simply unsustainable,” McConnell said. “The American people deserve relief and we’ll keep working to provide it.”

An all-male group of Senate Republicans has worked privately for months to craft its version of the House healthcare bill, which narrowly passed to the upper chamber in May, under increasing pressure from Trump. Sticking points for Republicans are centered around proposed cuts to Medicaid, taxes related to the ACA, and funding for Planned Parenthood.

The same lawmakers are facing growing criticism from both sides of the aisle for not releasing more details about the healthcare plan and refusing to hold public hearings. The Senate has said it will not vote without a CBO score. A CBO analysis of the House healthcare bill estimated that it would cause 23m Americans to lose health insurance over the next decade and said some of the country’s sickest people could face significantly higher premiums and out-of-pocket costs.

The Democratic effort to slow the agenda will begin on Monday afternoon, when the Senate reconvenes. The Democrats plan to object to all requests for unanimous consent and in turn offer their own requests for unanimous consent in an attempt to force the bill before a committee, where debate can take place in public, the senior aide said.

Democrats also intend to hold control of the Senate floor until late in the evening, delivering a series of speeches urging Republicans to make the health bill public.

McConnell has brushed off accusations that his party was crafting its bill in secret, a highly unusual move for legislation with such broad and sweeping implications.

“Nobody’s hiding the ball here,” the Kentucky Republican said last week.

He added: “There have been gazillions of hearings on this subject, when [Democrats] were in the majority, when we were in the majority. We understand this issue pretty well and we’re now working on coming up with a solution.”

On Monday, Schumer and three other Democrats on the Senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions sent a letter addressed to Republican leaders demanding that they “schedule hearings to discuss, debate and hear testimony about the healthcare bill that you are currently drafting in secret”.

The Democrats then listed all the hearing rooms in the Senate where Republicans could hold a debate on the bill.

On Monday morning, Trump again said the ACA was dead, and that rising premiums were unaffordable.

“The Dems want to stop tax cuts, good healthcare and Border Security,” the president tweeted. “Their ObamaCare is dead with 100% increases in [premiums].”

Experts have said uncertainty among insurers over how the Trump administration will handle healthcare repeal has contributed to rising premiums.