House GOP moderates are telling Republican leaders they will not walk the plank and vote for Medicaid cuts in the party\u2019s \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d only to see the Senate strip them out \u2014 their latest warning shot in the effort to enact President Trump\u2019s legislative agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the past, GOP leaders have corralled the conference around more conservative pieces of legislation to gain leverage over the upper chamber, cajoling centrists to take politically painful votes with hopes that they would help realize a more right-leaning final product. Speaker Mike Johnson\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-La.) deployed the strategy in February during negotiations over the budget resolution, and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) did the same amid the debt limit standoff in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This time around, however, moderates are putting their foot down, making clear that they will not back a more conservative Trump agenda bill that includes poison pill measures \u2014 namely drastic changes to Medicaid \u2014 as a negotiating tactic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s the vote we\u2019re trying to avoid,\u201d Rep. Nick LaLota\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-N.Y.) said of the intermediary step. \u201cThere is a specific appetite amongst 20-plus Republican members to vote only on something that is real and that could actually become law rather than this more conservative thing that can\u2019t get the vote.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe members with whom I most frequently speak do not want to go down that path,\u201d he added of first passing a conservative bill. \u201cWe feel like we\u2019ve done that heavy lifting already, and members like me prefer to only vote on a bill that could actually become law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), a Democrat-turned-Republican, said such a situation would be the \u201cworst\u201d sequence of events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe worst scenario of all would be for the House of Representatives to vote for a bill, get it out, and then it goes to the Senate and the president, and they say we\u2019re not doing it, it\u2019s a bad bill,\u201d Van Drew told The Hill. \u201cI think we\u2019ve emphasized that to the Speaker, and I think at this point he agrees, we have to be in communication with them to make sure that we\u2019re all on the same page, or at least damn close.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cautionary signal comes as House Republicans are still haggling over spending cuts for their package full of Trump\u2019s domestic policy priorities, with potential changes to Medicaid emerging as one of the biggest sticking points. The House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over Medicaid, is directed to find at least $880 billion in cuts, a figure that the Congressional Budget Office says cannot be reached without slashes to the social safety net program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The matter has plagued the House GOP conference: Hard-line conservatives are pushing for changes to Medicaid, sounding the alarm about the ballooning deficit, while moderates are pumping the brakes on any aggressive reforms that would hurt beneficiaries in their districts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A majority of Republicans in the Senate, meanwhile, are apprehensive about the steep Medicaid cuts, a dynamic that helps the centrists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The disagreement is holding up progress on the Trump agenda bill. The Energy and Commerce Committee initially planned to advance its portion of the package this week, but the vote was delayed amid the continued discord over potential Medicaid cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a moderate lawmaker who has been opposed to significant Medicaid changes, said leadership has tried to get centrists on board with the Medicaid changes by assuring them that the Senate will remove the provisions once the package clears the House and heads to the upper chamber \u2014 the exact situation the group is trying to avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHere\u2019s the tactic they\u2019ve been using: \u2018Don\u2019t worry about the Senate. They\u2019ll fix it.\u2019 And now we\u2019re getting ready to take our third vote on this,\u201d he told The Wall Street Journal<\/u><\/a>. \u201cWe feel like we\u2019re being pushed up to the edge of the cliff here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n