US President Barack Obama has postponed until June his trip to Asia, the White House announced Thursday, as fellow Democrats scrambled for support ahead of an expected final vote on health care reform this weekend in the House of Representatives.
Obama had been set to leave on a trip to Indonesia and Australia Sunday, but spokesman Robert Gibbs cited the health care vote in the House, which could take place Sunday morning, as the chief reason for the president to remain in Washington.
Obama had already delayed the trip to Asia by three days, but with lawmakers uncertain throughout the last as to when the health vote would take place, Gibbs said it "seemed obvious to us that the best course of business was to reschedule Indonesia and Australia to June."
Health care reform has been Obama's top domestic priority since entering office in January 2009. Approval Sunday by the US House of Representatives would set up a final vote by the Senate in the coming weeks.