Page 10A
NATION
East Oregonian
Saturday, May 6, 2017
GOP health victory may be fleeting as wary Senate awaits
McConnell plans to
allow simple majority
By ERICA WERNER
and ALAN FRAM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Senate Republicans wasted
no time on Friday showing
they have little use for the
House bill to repeal and
replace Barack Obama’s
Affordable Care Act amid
fears among Americans that
people already sick won’t be
able to get affordable insur-
ance.
“I’m going to read the
House bill, find out what it
costs and where I find good
ideas there, why we’ll borrow
them. But basically we’re
writing our own bill,” Sen.
Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.,
chairman of the Senate
health committee, said in an
interview.
“At this point, there seem
to be more questions than
answers about its conse-
quences,” said moderate
GOP Sen. Susan Collins
of Maine, whose vote may
prove one of the hardest to
get for President Donald
Trump and Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
And
Sen.
Lindsey
Graham, R-S.C., said over
Twitter: “A bill — finalized
yesterday, has not been
scored, amendments not
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump, accompanied by GOP House members, speaks in the
Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Thursday after the House pushed
through a health care bill.
allowed, and 3 hours final
debate — should be viewed
with caution.”
The outspoken and imme-
diate skepticism pointed
to a long road ahead in the
Senate. And for a president
who’s already expressed
disappointment in Congress’
slow-moving ways, more
frustration seemed assured.
“I don’t think anyone in the
Senate is going to be bullied
into artificial benchmarks or
timelines,” said Josh Holmes,
dures that allow legislation to
pass with a simple majority
vote, instead of the 60 usually
required for major bills in the
Senate. That means he will
only need Republican votes,
which is all he can rely on
anyway since Democrats
are refusing to participate in
dismantling Obama’s law.
But under complicated Senate
rules, it also limits what can
go into the legislation.
And with only a slim
52-48 majority, McConnell
Twitter users including
actress
Alyssa
Milano
described how the proposed
House law could affect them
or family members dealing
with serious illnesses. Some
describe suffering from
cancer, hereditary diseases or
post-traumatic stress disorder
brought on by combat.
On the other side, a GOP
group allied with House lead-
ership announced plans to run
TV ads thanking Republicans
who voted for the repeal bill
in key districts.
The House bill, passed
217-213, would end the
health care law’s fines on
people who don’t purchase
policies and erase its taxes
on health industry busi-
nesses and higher-earning
people. It would dilute
consumer-friendly insurance
coverage requirements, like
letting states permit insurers
to charge higher premiums
for customers with pre-ex-
isting medical conditions.
The latter provision was the
focus of much attention from
opponents Friday.
The measure would also
water down the subsidies
that help consumers afford
health insurance, and it
would cut Medicaid, the
health insurance program
for the poor and disabled,
including ending extra
federal payments to 31 states
that expanded Medicaid to
cover more people.
BRIEFLY
Trump transition raised flags
about Flynn Russia contacts
WASHINGTON (AP) — In late
November, a member of Donald Trump’s
transition team approached national security
officials in the Obama White House with a
curious request: Could the incoming team
get a copy of the classified CIA profile on
Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the
United States?
Marshall Billingslea, a former Pentagon
and NATO official, wanted the information
for his boss, Michael Flynn, who had been
tapped by Trump to serve as White House
national security adviser. Billingslea knew
Flynn would be speaking to Kislyak,
according to two former Obama administra-
tion officials, and seemed concerned Flynn
did not fully understand he was dealing
with a man rumored to have ties to Russian
intelligence agencies.
To the Obama White House, Billingslea’s
concerns were startling: a member of
Trump’s own team suggesting the incoming
Trump administration might be in over its
head in dealing with an adversary.
The request now stands out as a warning
signal for Obama officials who would
soon see Flynn’s contacts with the Russian
spiral into a controversy that would cost
him his job and lead to a series of shocking
accusations hurled by Trump against his
predecessor’s administration.
In the following weeks, the Obama
White House would grow deeply distrustful
a GOP consultant and former
chief of staff to McConnell.
“It will be a very different
process that will look very
different from the one that
we just saw unfolding in the
House.”
Senate leaders have
repeatedly vowed success.
“Failure is not an option,”
No. 2 Senate leader John
Cornyn, R-Texas, said earlier
this year.
McConnell plans to move
forward under special proce-
can lose only two senators
from his sometimes fractious
caucus, which runs the gamut
from moderates like Collins
to conservatives like Rand
Paul of Kentucky and Ted
Cruz of Texas. Then there
are those senators who are
up for re-election in 2018.
Fortunately for McConnell
only two are in any serious
jeopardy, Dean Heller of
Nevada and Jeff Flake of
Arizona, but they are certain
to be particularly cautious
about casting their vote for
anything that jeopardizes
their constituents.
There was immediate
evidence of the political
pressure that awaits.
Hinting at the attacks to
come as next year’s elections
draw nearer, the Democratic
House and Senate campaign
committees both released
digital
ads
lambasting
supporters of the legislation.
Major Democratic Super
PAC American Bridge
also released a digital ad
declaring: “Tell Senate
Republicans this is their
mess now, and we are
watching.” The legislation
could become a major issue
for vulnerable House Repub-
licans in divided districts,
and House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi has already
threatened they will “glow in
the dark” over their vote.
At the “IAmAPreexisting-
Condition” hashtag on Friday,
Texas officer charged with
murder in death of teen
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File
In this Feb. 10, 2017 file photo, then-Na-
tional Security Adviser Michael Flynn
sits in the East Room of the White House
in Washington.
of Trump’s dealing with the Kremlin
and anxious about his team’s ties. The
concern — compounded by surge of new
intelligence, including evidence of multiple
calls, texts and at least one in-person meeting
between Flynn and Kislyak — would even-
tually grow so great Obama advisers delayed
telling Trump’s team about plans to punish
Russia for its election meddling. Obama
officials worried the incoming administration
might tip off Moscow, according to one
Obama adviser.
DALLAS (AP) — A white former Texas
police officer has been released on bond
after he turned himself in to authorities to
face a murder warrant in the shooting of a
black teenager.
Roy Oliver posted a $300,000 bond after
turning himself in at the Parker County
Jail in Weatherford, about 95 miles west of
Dallas.
An arrest warrant was issued Friday for
the former Balch Springs police officer,
accusing him of murder in the death of
15-year-old Jordan Edwards. Oliver fired a
rifle at a car full of teenagers leaving a party
April 29, killing Edwards.
The teen’s death led to protests calling for
Oliver to be fired and charged. On Tuesday,
the same day that the officer was fired, news
broke of the Justice Department’s decision not
to charge two white police officers in Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, in the shooting death of
a black man in 2016. And a white officer in
North Charleston, South Carolina, pleaded
guilty that day to federal civil rights charges in
the fatal shooting of a black man in 2015.
Edwards and his two brothers and two
other teenagers were driving away from an
unruly house party in Balch Springs late
Saturday night when Oliver opened fire on
their vehicle with a rifle. The bullets shattered
the front passenger-side window and struck
Edwards. Oliver’s firing Tuesday was for
violating department policies in the shooting.
It took a few moments for Edwards’
16-year-old brother, who was driving,
and other passengers to notice that he was
slumped over in his seat.
The investigation into the shooting “will
continue and does not conclude with the
arrest,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Melinda
Urbina said.
U.S. company denies security
risks, prostitution at Iraq base
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Interior
Department on Friday identified 27 national
monuments, mostly in Western states, that
it is reviewing for possible changes to the
protections created by Republican and
Democratic presidents over the past two
decades.
President Donald Trump ordered the
review last month, saying protections
imposed by his three immediate predecessors
amounted to “a massive federal land grab”
that “should never have happened.”
A list released Friday includes 22
monuments on federal land in 11, mostly
Western states, including Bears Ears and
Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah, Nevada’s
Basin and Range and Hanford Reach in
Richland, Washington.
The review also targets five marine
monuments in the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, including a huge reserve in Hawaii
established in 2006 by President George W.
Bush and expanded last year by President
Barack Obama.
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