A group of fiscal conservatives in the House is holding up the $4 trillion tax cut and spending bill that Republicans are trying to pass this week.
Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus pumped the brakes on the bill Wednesday morning in a press conference on Capitol Hill. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is pushing for a vote this week on the sweeping legislation, but the fiscal hawks at the press conference made it clear that he does not have the votes yet as they work toward an agreement with leadership and the White House.
Freedom Caucus chairman Andy Harris (R-MD) told reporters that while the conservative group is “greatly encouraged” by the progress made in the past 24 hours or so, its members are looking to include more Medicaid reforms and cuts to green energy subsidies in the legislation.
The delay threatened by conservatives comes just after leadership reached a deal with centrist holdouts to allow more deductions for state and local taxes. Leaders can only lose the votes of a few members and still pass the legislation.
President Donald Trump was on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to promote the legislation, which he has dubbed the “one big, beautiful bill.” Harris tied the Freedom Caucus’s agenda for the bill to the president’s push.
“The bottom line is, he said, ‘End waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid,’ which is a hugely popular issue with the American people, and he said, ‘End the green new scam,’ which is hugely popular with the American people,” Harris told reporters.
In pushing for reform, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), another vocal opponent of the bill in its current form, said that millions of people can’t get healthcare because the system is “broken” and the system gives more money to people on Medicaid, which covers low-income and disabled people, than on Medicare, which covers retirees and some others.
THE THREE FACTIONS HOLDING UP TRUMP’S ‘ONE BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’
“We are trying to fix those things and match those so we have a system that works,” Roy said. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Johnson has said several times he wants to bring the legislation to the floor for a vote on Wednesday, but the Freedom Caucus poured cold water on that aspirational deadline during the press conference. Harris said he doesn’t think they will reach an agreement this week, but expressed confidence that a deal can be reached in the next 10 days.