Donald Trump wants health bill before vacation

Washington: President Donald Trump prodded US lawmakers on Monday to pass an unpopular health care reform bill before Congress goes on its summer recess next month.

Mr Trump chided lawmakers as the Senate reconvened after a week off for the July 4 independence holiday and with the House of Representatives scheduled back in session on Tuesday. Both chambers are scheduled to be in recess for the entire month of August.

“I cannot imagine that Congress would dare to leave Washington without a beautiful new HealthCare bill fully approved and ready to go!” Trump wrote in a morning tweet.

The tweets included criticism of fired FBI director William Comey for allegedly leaking classified information in personal memos and a defence of Mr Trump’s eldest daughter Ivanka’s sitting in for him at a meeting at the G-20 summit last week in Germany.

Mr Trump has made repealing and replacing the health care law known as Obamacare a centrepiece of his agenda.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell had sought to bring up a vote on a Senate plan to do so, before the July 4 break.

But late last month dissent in his own party forced him to delay the vote. Polls also show the Senate plan to be very unpopular among the American public.

Mr McConnell had drafted the plan in secret with a coterie of aides, leaving out a number of key senators who later expressed concern that the bill could leave millions uninsured.

Conservative senators like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul said they cannot support the proposal unless it repeals the 2010 Affordable Care Act. , the signature legislation of Barack Obama.