According to Sessions, Cruz was vital in bringing about a public debate on the bill. He claims that the debate Cruz helped to start influenced conservatives in the House to oppose it. And yet, the bill did pass the Senate in June of 2013 and had a chance of passing in the House up until Dave Brat’s victory a year later. The most you can say about Cruz helping that outcome is if the discussion sparked in 2013 made the bill too toxic to pass in the House immediate after Senate passage. But again, an event like Brat’s was needed to cause it to be permanently shelved.
I just got to this post. Here is the reply I had just written in full agreement with the above.