With days to go before the Senate is expected to vote on a Republican healthcare bill, progressive groups are urging Democrats to “play hardball” until the GOP agrees to give the plan a proper public hearing.

On Monday, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer announced that Democrats would use procedural maneuvers to slow Senate business. Late into the night, Democrats delivered speeches on the floor of the chamber, demanding Republicans drop the secrecy that surrounds their bill.

“That’s a one-night stand,” said Murshed Zaheed, political director at the liberal group Credo Action. “A one-night stand isn’t good enough at this point.”



There may not be many nights left: on Tuesday, Tennessee Republican Bob Corker told MSNBC he expects the bill to be made public on Thursday and a vote to take place next week.

Democrats can only delay the vote, not stop it. Activists hope borrowed time will help build public outrage. Zaheed said Senate Democrats should use every procedural tool to grind business to a halt. A Democratic aide said the protest was likely to last until Republicans relented. Some senators, however, have raised concern that the protest will allow the GOP – who have insisted they are not being secretive – to label their opponents as obstructionists.

“So far we haven’t seen a response from Democrats that is proportional to the sense of urgency people who stand to lose healthcare are feeling,” Zaheed said. “If they don’t play hardball, we’re going to increase the pressure on them to do so.”

On Tuesday, as three senators broadcast their concerns about the bill via Facebook, Schumer announced that Democrats would escalate their opposition inside the Senate by using procedural tactics to block committees from meeting after the body has been in session for more than two hours.



“Before passing a massive bill that will affect the lives of every single American,” Schumer said, “there ought to be a rigorous and robust debate in committees and a full debate on the floor.”

Away from Congress, Groups like Credo Action are holding rallies, staging sit-ins and utilising social media in an effort to save the Affordable Care Act, the Obama-era law that Republicans want to repeal.

This bill is like a vampire. It can’t live when exposed to the light of day Ben Wikler, Moveon.org

“This bill is like a vampire,” said Ben Wikler, Washington director at Moveon.org. “It can’t live when exposed to the light of day. That’s why the Republican strategy has been to keep it a secret.”

Activists have flooded the phones and inboxes of senators, sharing personal healthcare stories and imploring them not to support the House bill, which leadership forced through in May. In congressional recesses, they have filled town hall events when Republicans have hosted them and confronted lawmakers at their offices when they have not.

Organizers say Republican leaders are hoping to avoid public outrage.

“There is no question where the public stands on this bill,” said Angel Padilla, policy director for Indivisible, a grassroots group that seeks to use Tea Party tactics to force politicians to oppose Trump’s agenda. “If senators are still willing to vote for a bill that their constituents don’t want and that will hurt their constituents they will pay for it on election day.”

Padilla pointed to Donald Trump’s own analysis of the Republican healthcare effort. During a private luncheon with Senate Republicans at the White House last week, Trump reportedly called that plan “mean” and “cold-hearted” and urged the Senate to pass more protections for consumers.

The Senate bill is reported to be broadly similar to the House plan, which was opposed by organizations representing every sector of the healthcare industry and remains unpopular with the American public.

An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that 23 million people would lose health insurance over the next decade under the House bill. In a recent Politico/Morning Consult poll, 47% of respondents said they disapproved of the measure while just 38% said they approved.

“Eighty percent of a terrible bill is still a terrible bill,” said Zaheed. “[The Senate bill] is still going to be legislation that will cause pain, suffering and most likely be deadly.”



Meryl Neiman, leader of a chapter of Indivisible in Columbus, Ohio, said she planned to confront her senator, Rob Portman, at his weekly “constituent coffee” in Washington. “We shouldn’t have to travel to Washington to see our senator but Senator Portman hasn’t communicated with his constituents,” Neiman said.

In the meeting on Wednesday, she said, she plans to push her senator to commit to a public hearing in his state before he votes on the bill.

Credo Action, meanwhile, is also targeting moderate Democrats from states that voted for Trump in November. On Tuesday, the group placed billboards in West Virginia, Indiana and North Dakota, showing Democratic senators Joe Manchin, Joe Donnelly and Heidi Heitkamp alongside the president and Republican leaders. The caption read: “Don’t let the GOP gut our healthcare.”