In This Article:
(Bloomberg) -- A key House committee advanced President Donald Trump’s giant tax and spending package after Republican hardliners won agreement from party leaders to speed up cuts to Medicaid health coverage.
Most Read from Bloomberg
-
Maryland’s Credit Rating Gets Downgraded as Governor Blames Trump
-
NJ Transit Makes Deal With Engineers, Ending Three-Day Strike
The vote in the House Budget Committee paves the way for passage of the legislation as soon as Thursday, House Republican leadership aides said Monday.
The late Sunday night committee vote followed a weekend of negotiations with four ultraconservatives on the panel who on Friday joined with Democrats to reject the legislation. Those hardliners instead abstained on Sunday and voted present, allowing the bill to advance.
Representative Chip Roy of Texas, one of the four hardliners, said party leaders agreed to move up Medicaid work requirements expected to kick millions of beneficiaries off the health coverage program and more quickly phase out clean energy tax breaks.
But Roy still expressed dissatisfaction, saying the measure “does not yet meet the moment.” Roy and the House Freedom Caucus said in posts on X they are hoping to win additional cuts before the bill comes up for a vote on the House floor.
Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington said he didn’t know what changes the party leaders had agreed to make. The changes will be added later, before the legislation is voted on by the full House.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters “there’s a lot more work to do” on the tax bill but said he would push on Medicaid work requirements “to make it happen sooner, as soon as possible.”
On Monday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told CNBC that work requirements would start in 2027, two years earlier than the timeframe in the draft legislation. But the Republican leadership staff later said that the date has not yet been settled.
Republicans broadly agree about imposing work requirements on Medicaid, the leadership aides told reporters. The discussion is around the start date, the people said. Republicans are also continuing to discuss the cap on the state and local tax deduction and when clean energy credits will phase out, they said.
There is strong support among Republicans for the tax cuts at the core of the package, providing an impetus to work out political differences.
But the House panel’s initial rejection of the legislation and the two-day impasse was an embarrassing setback for Republican leaders on their top legislative priority, highlighting ferocious infighting among party factions over components of the sprawling multi-trillion dollar fiscal package.