WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on congressional health care legislation (all times local):
7:05 p.m.
House Speaker Paul Ryan says he is encouraging every Republican senator to vote for the latest, last-ditch effort in the Senate to dismantle Barack Obama’s health care law.
Ryan spoke to reporters during a stop in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. He says the bill from Sens. Lindsey Graham and Bill Cassidy is the “last chance to get repeal and replace done.”
He says if the Senate passes the measure in the next two weeks, the House will act on it.
Due to Senate deadlines, there would be no time for the House and Senate to try to work out their differences. The House backed a bill in May that went nowhere in the Senate. Ryan signaled that he would try to get the House to pass the Senate bill.
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3:45 p.m.
The Congressional Budget Office says it won’t be able to provide crucial projections about the impact of the newest Republican bill aimed at scuttling President Barack Obama’s health care law until after the Senate is expected to vote on it.
The nonpartisan office tweeted Monday that it would take “at least several weeks” to estimate the measure’s effect on the number of people covered and insurance customers’ premiums.
That is crucial information for GOP senators trying to determine how the proposal would affect their states and whether to support the legislation.
Republicans need support from 50 of the 52 GOP senators to prevail. Procedural protections from a Democratic filibuster expire Sept. 30. After that the bill would need 60 votes, which they can’t get due to Democratic opposition.
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1:15 p.m.
Senate Republicans are planning a final, uphill push to erase President Barack Obama’s health care law. But Democrats and their allies are going all-out to stop the drive.
The initial Republican effort crashed in July in the GOP-run Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said after that defeat that he’d not revisit the issue without the votes to succeed.
South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Louisiana’s Bill Cassidy are leading the new GOP charge.
They’d transform much of Obama’s law into block grants and let states decide how to spend the money.
They’ll need support from 50 out of 52 GOP senators to succeed.
They only have until Sept. 30. Special procedures expire after that and they’d need 60 votes. That would entail support from Democrats, which they won’t get.
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