In The News

A bill repealing and at least partially replacing Obamacare will be presented to President Trump by the end of February, according to House majority leader Kevin McCarthy and House Ways and Means Committee chairman Kevin Brady.

The two Republican leaders appeared in separate interviews on the nationally syndicated Hugh Hewitt Show Wednesday morning. Brady, whose committee is expected to do much of the most challenging work on the repeal and replace strategy, vowed that a bill eliminating the law's key budget-related items—including the individual mandate penalty—would be on the president's desk "in February:"

HH: I'm more focused, Mr. Chairman, on timing. When does the repeal bill get to President Trump's desk, and will the medical device tax repeal be in that and the tax penalty repeal be in that?

KB: Well, the repeal bill is slated to be on the president's desk in February. My understanding is that his hope to have it to him in that month. That's the timetable we're working under.

HH: And will the medical device tax repeal be in there?

KB: It will.

HH: Oh, my gosh, that is great news. How about the tax penalty repeal?

KB: On specific, which one?

HH: The one that penalizes you for not having Obamacare.

KB: Yes, the mandate penalties will be removed.

Legislation targeting those items specifically could pass the Senate with only 51 votes in the "budget reconciliation" process, removing a key 60-vote threshold that often holds up other activity.

Later in the program, McCarthy joined Hewitt to discuss the same topic. The California Republican confirmed that House leadership is planning to meet that very aggressive agenda, even though he didn't want to "lock us into a date" for legislating on broader health care reform ideas.

HH: To be specific, though, there will be a bill on the president's desk by the end of February that might not include all of the replacement but some of the replacement.

KM: Yes.

The unified message on Wednesday morning's interviews comes less than 24 hours after Trump told the New York Times that he expected a repeal vote "sometime next week" and then asserted that "the replace will be very quickly or simultaneously, very shortly thereafter." House speaker Paul Ryan said Tuesday that the goal was to do both "concurrently." The House and Senate are expected to take action this week on a budget resolution that would begin the Obamacare repeal process.

But as noted by THE WEEKLY STANDARD on Tuesday, Republicans in the Senate, led by former George W. Bush administration budget director Rob Portman, are introducing a budget amendment that could slow the process beyond the February 28 deadline McCarthy agreed to this morning.