Democratic senators storm the CBO to try to get a copy of the Republican health-care bill

With a vote slated for next week and no draft health-care bill in sight, Democratic senators decided to take matters into their own hands. On Tuesday, Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) took a cab over to the Congressional Budget Office in the hopes that maybe the office would let them see the "secret" GOP-backed health-care bill, Murphy tweeted.

Before releasing a draft of the bill, Republican senators handed it over to the CBO to be scored, which makes CBO staffers among the few people to have actually seen the bill. The bill is being written entirely by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his aides, and negotiations have gone on behind closed doors, enraging Democrats and even leaving Republicans unsure of what's in the plan to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Tuesday he still hasn't seen the bill, though he expects he'll get a better look at it later this week.

No word yet on whether the Democratic senators' mission was a success. Becca Stanek

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Update 1:35 p.m. ET: Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) confirmed later Tuesday that they were unable to get a copy of the bill from the CBO because of a "confidentiality agreement." Murphy said the CBO "would not confirm that they are working on the bill."