White House's Spicer says there's no backup plan for health-care bill because it will pass
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the Trump administration still expects the vote on the Republican health-care bill to continue as scheduled.
If the vote were to be postponed, Spicer said that would be up to House Speaker Paul Ryan. Spicer added that President Donald Trump has not asked Ryan to delay the vote.
When he was asked whether there is a backup plan in case the bill doesn't pass, Spicer said there wasn't one.
"No. It's gonna pass, so that's it," he said in his daily press briefing.
At the time, it was not clear that Republicans had the 215 votes they needed to pass the bill. Spicer declined to tell reporters the number of representatives who had pledged to vote "yes."
"We're keeping that vote total rather tight right now, but I feel very buoyed by the direction we're headed in," he said.
Trump's Thursday meeting with the conservative Freedom Caucus was a "very positive step" in the administration's efforts to whip up support for the bill, Spicer said.
The group has threatened the bill's passage, as its members have said the GOP plan does not go far enough to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
The White House has seen the number of health bill supporters rise. During the meeting some caucus members told the president that they would support the measure, Spicer said. But he declined to specify which Freedom Caucus members decided to support the bill.
Earlier, the White House gave the Freedom Caucus a final offer on the bill, but the conservative group's leader said no deal was reached.
— CNBC's Jacob Pramuk and NBC News contributed to this report.