The White House is insisting that the Senate resume efforts to repeal and replace the nation's health care law.
It is signaling that President Donald Trump stands ready to end required payments to insurers this week to let "Obamacare implode" and force congressional action.
White House adviser Kellyanne Conway says the president is not accepting that it is "time to move on" after last week's defeat. She tells "Fox News Sunday" that Trump will make a decision soon on whether to end the insurance payments.
Trump has also called on the Senate not to hold any votes until the repeal effort gets another vote. His budget director, Mick Mulvaney, tells CNN's "State of the Union" he agrees.
"If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!" Trump tweeted.
The subsidies, totaling about $7 billion a year, help reduce deductibles and copayments for consumers with modest incomes. The Obama administration used its rule-making authority to set direct payments to insurers to help offset these costs. Trump inherited the payment structure, but he also has the power to end them.
The payments are the subject of a lawsuit brought by House Republicans over whether the health law specifically included a congressional appropriation for the money, as required under the Constitution. Trump has only guaranteed the payments through July, which ends Monday.
The Senate faces a backlog of executive and judicial nominations.
(Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
