Hice Congressman Jody Hice (R-Georgia), who is a member of the Freedom Caucus, is optimistic that the House eventually will get the votes to approve the American Health Care Act. The Freedom Caucus as a whole has opposed language in the bill that impacts the cost of coverage, but that went away with a reported agreement to allow states the ability to apply for waivers and get out of some regulations. Congressman Hice made the following remarks Thursday afternoon on “Washington Watch” with FRC president Tony Perkins: “People need to understand this is still not a repeal – [that] we are still fighting for a full repeal of ObamaCare. But … it is the best and the closest we’re going to get with the conference and the makeup that we currently have in Congress …. It does place the ability for states to take it even further and … to be waived out of the essential parts of ObamaCare that in essence will repeal the thing in full.” “It’s the best we’re going to be able to get at this point…None of the pro-life issues were removed. I’m excited that we’re going to be able to get this thing hopefully over the finish line and perhaps even this weekend. At that point, the ball is in the court of the Senate and hopefully they will take it without a whole lot of changes and we’ll be able to have a huge win across the board.” “Many of us believe the federal government needs to be out of the healthcare market altogether, and this bill does give enormous authority for states to do that, but there’s other things that still will need to be done to totally get rid of this thing – but this is an enormous step forward. It is going to lower premiums, and it does. It’s the first huge step of taking the teeth out of perhaps the most disastrous bill in America’s history.” “I’ve been extremely encouraged with the involvement of the White House in this. It shows that we have an administration that does care about these critical issues and they’re willing to get down to the nitty-gritty with all of us – and that’s not just with the Freedom Caucus. They have been heavily involved in all of the negotiations; and that’s been extremely encouraging and directly opposite of the previous administration that we had to work with.”

The House won’t vote on a reworked health care overhaul until at least next week, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., told reporters late Thursday. Party leaders made that decision after spending all day pressuring moderate GOP lawmakers to back that bill, but fell short of the votes they’d need to prevail.

“As soon as we have the votes, we’ll vote on it,” McCarthy said after leaving a nearly two-hour meeting of the House GOP leadership.

He ruled out votes on Friday or Saturday — which is Trump’s 100th day in the White House. That was a disappointment for the administration, whose officials had pressured House leaders all week to try completing the health measure by Saturday.

McCarthy also said Republicans would push through the House Friday a short-term spending bill keeping the government open for at least another week. They plan to pass it with only GOP votes, if necessary. Minority Democrats are threatening to withhold support unless there is a bipartisan deal on a massive $1 trillion measure funding agencies through Sept. 30, when the current fiscal year ends, and no final agreement has been reached.

“We’re working on the funding of government. We’re getting that through” on Friday, McCarthy said of the temporary spending measure.

Asked by reporters whether Republicans would have to pass the short-term bill without Democratic votes, McCarthy said, “Yeah.”

The struggle over both bills was embarrassing to the GOP, which has Trump in the White House and majorities in Congress. Republicans would have preferred to not be laboring to keep agencies functioning or approve a health care overhaul, the gold standard of GOP campaign promises for the past seven years.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said bargainers were “very close” to completing the $1 trillion budget package. But underscoring lingering battles over environmental and financial regulations, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., blocked the Senate late Thursday from approving the short-term measure.

“No poison pill riders,” he said.

The bipartisan budget talks had progressed smoothly after the White House dropped a threat to withhold payments that help lower-income Americans pay their medical bills and Trump abandoned a demand for money for a border wall with Mexico.

With neither party savoring a federal shutdown, it seemed likely Congress would approve the week-long stopgap measure in time to keep agencies open.

On the separate health care bill, House Republican leaders are still scrounging for votes from their own rank-and-file to rescue it.

Republicans have recast it to let states escape a requirement under President Barack Obama’s 2010 law that insurers charge healthy and seriously ill customers the same rates. They could also be exempted from Obama’s mandate that insurers cover a list of services like hospitalization and substance abuse treatment and from its prohibition against charging older customers more than triple their rates for younger ones.

The overall legislation would cut the Medicaid program for the poor, eliminate Obama’s fines for people who don’t buy insurance and provide generally skimpier subsidies.

Centrist Republicans were the primary target of lobbying by the White House and GOP leaders seeking the 216 votes they would need to clinch passage of the health measure.

More than a dozen Republicans, mostly moderates, said they were opposing the legislation. Many others remained publicly uncommitted, putting party elders in a tough spot. If 22 Republicans defect, the bill would fail, assuming all Democrats opposed it.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., wants to avoid an encore of last month’s embarrassment. He abruptly canceled a vote on a health care overhaul at that time because of opposition from moderates and conservatives alike.

On Wednesday, conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus announced their support for the revised health legislation. That reversed the conservatives’ opposition to the earlier edition of the legislation.