You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

All-White, All-Male Senate Republican Group Drafting Health Bill

HeadlineMay 08, 2017

On Capitol Hill, Senate Republicans have begun drafting a healthcare bill that would repeal much of the Affordable Care Act, though the legislation is unlikely to closely resemble a bill approved by the House last week. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tasked a “working group” of 13 Republicans to draft the legislation—all of them white men. This is California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein, Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein: “I don’t know what the 13 white men, when you have five Republican women who are excluded from that, that these 13 men are supposed to sit down and put something together.”

Andrea Mitchell: “You’re speaking of the working group that has been put together.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein: “The working group.”

Andrea Mitchell: “And it’s all male.”

Sen. Dianne Feinstein: “And it’s all male. And women’s health is a big part of this, and women are a majority of the population, and their health interests deserve to be contemplated in any reform.”

Republicans hold just 52 of the Senate’s 100 seats, and several GOP senators have said they won’t accept the House bill approved on Thursday.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top