Last month, House Republicans passed their first major piece of legislation in the form of healthcare. This puts the pressure on Senate Republicans to pass their own version. So for the past fifty days Senator McConnell and other top Republicans have been working towards putting together a bill that can pass the Senate.

They plan to pass this bill through a process called budget reconciliation. This means they would only need 50 Republican Senators (plus Vice President Pence) to pass as opposed to the normal 60 required to prevent the filibuster. Since there are only 52 Republicans in the House, they can only afford to lose 2 votes. More than likely this will be very conservative Senator Rand Paul who has said he won’t for anything that he deems as a new welfare system and the least conservative Republican, Senator Susan Collins.

So, Senator McConnell has the tough job of crafting a bill that the remaining 49 members are willing to vote for. This has been one of the main reasons they have been so quiet publicly about the bill. Usually by now we would have seen numerous hearings regarding what the bill entails and who it would affect. Instead we’ve had complete silence regarding the specifics of the bill. This allows them to craft a bill that will meet all of their members needs without having to come under the public pressure regarding what it entails.

Today, during a press conference Senator McConnell said that they will release the bill to the public this Thursday, followed by a vote sometime next week. To say that this would a quick process would be an understatement. This means that there will be very little time for the public to see the bill, let alone read it before they put it to a vote. Senate Republicans have the goal of passing this through the Senate before they break for the July 4th recess, so they are feeling the pressure to get this through. We should also expect to see a CBO score next Tuesday, which should give us more details and how it will affect the budget and the healthcare industry.

There has been some speculation as to whether or not they will be able to get the votes to make this work. Numerous Republicans have been wary of not having seen the bill themselves and being forced to vote next week. It’s very possible that the bill could be brought to the floor and yet fail to pass. Meaning that they will most likely shelve healthcare and attempt to move onto taxes.

We will just have to wait and see what the bill looks like on Thursday before we will know if it has a chance to pass.