WASHINGTON _ The Trump administration is trying to persuade House Republicans to sign on to a new version of the health care bill that they had to abandon last month in an embarrassing setback to their pledge to repeal Obamacare.
Vice President Mike Pence and White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus met with House conservatives late Monday to lay out the details of the plan. President Donald Trump's budget director, Mick Mulvaney, was also in the meeting.
"We're just talking," Priebus said after leaving the meeting with the House Freedom Caucus.
House GOP leaders said earlier that no health care vote is planned for this week, but a House supporter of Trump's said he thinks a vote could still occur.
"The administration would like that to happen," Republican Rep. Chris Collins of New York told reporters. "There's more discussions to be had, but this was certainly a green light to continue these discussions with other members." Collins and several Republican moderates went to the White House earlier in the day to discuss the plan.
Republicans have little space on the calendar to hold a new vote this month. They are scheduled to begin a two-week recess on Friday, and when they return they will have five days to pass a spending measure to keep the government funded after April 28.
Mark Meadows, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, which helped block the last health care bill, said Monday before the Pence meeting that he hadn't seen the administration's new proposal in writing.
"There's no deal, no offer" between the White House and the House Freedom Caucus, said Meadows, of North Carolina, who added that the new talk of a deal is being driven by the White House.
While the details of the plan remain unclear, Collins said one change would include allowing states to apply for waivers of Obamacare's requirements to cover certain "essential health benefits." States would have to show that their waiver "would improve coverage and reduce costs," he said. The final version of the previous GOP bill would have simply removed those requirements.
Justin Amash of Michigan, a Freedom Caucus member, said that any talks are still in early stages.
Pence is "talking to us about the administration's draft proposal that has not yet been presented to the @freedomcaucus," he tweeted.
