House Freedom Caucus pushes GOP leaders to delay vote on Trump agenda

Hard-line conservatives in the House Freedom Caucus are pushing GOP leaders to delay plans for a Wednesday vote on the “big, beautiful bill” carrying President Trump’s agenda.

Some of the group members remain opposed to the bill because they do not believe it goes far enough to reduce federal spending on Medicaid for able-bodied adults or act fast enough to repeal clean energy tax credits.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, Maryland Republican, said the White House offered a proposal late Tuesday that addresses those two concerns, but the details of a deal still need time to come together.

“I don’t think it can be done today,” he said. “The runway is short today.”

Still, Mr. Harris said if the White House proposals on Medicaid and the clean energy credits are incorporated into the package, it would be “on route to get passed.”

He declined to provide details other than to say the Medicaid proposals would “bend the out-of-control spending trajectory by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse.”

The other goal is to end as much of the clean energy credits, which conservatives call the “green new scam,” as possible, Mr. Harris said.

The Washington Times reached out to the White House for comment.

The Freedom Caucus members said the details of the White House offer still need to be fleshed out into legislative text that can be added to the legislation. The proposals would also need buy-in from other House Republicans, some of whom have resisted the group’s demands.

“There’s a long way to go,” Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, said. “I want to be very clear. We’ve got to deliver on what we’re talking about, or we’re not going to be able to get the bill done.”

President Trump is set to meet with the Freedom Caucus on Wednesday afternoon. The proposals and timeline for passing the bill are sure to come up.

Months ago, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, set a Memorial Day deadline for House passage of the massive budget reconciliation package that includes sweeping tax and spending cuts, defense and border security funding and energy policy changes. 

This week, Mr. Johnson has been saying he would like to have a floor vote on Wednesday, if possible, and no later than Thursday, when the House is scheduled to depart for the holiday recess. He told reporters Wednesday morning that he planned to hold a vote that night, but later softened that to “there is a chance for a vote today.”

Freedom Caucus members have said there is no rush to pass the bill this week. 

“This is a completely arbitrary deadline set by people here to force people into a corner to make bad decisions,” Rep. Scott Perry, Pennsylvania Republican, said. “It’s more important to get this right, to get it correct, than to get it fast.”

Mr. Harris has suggested House Republicans spend the holiday weekend and next week’s recess fine-tuning the legislation and try to pass it the first week of June.

Some moderate Republicans have said they would be unlikely to support additional cuts to Medicaid in the package, while Freedom Caucus members view that as a necessary condition of getting their votes.

That complicates the math for GOP leaders, who cannot afford more than three party defections on the bill since Democrats are universally opposed.

There are at least nine Freedom Caucus members opposed to the bill as written, in addition to Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, who has said he cannot be swayed to support it. 

Mr. Roy, a cancer survivor, said he ran for Congress to fix the broken health care system that has prevented millions of Americans from getting coverage. 

“The vulnerable Americans are on wait lists because we’ve got a broken system that rewards the able-bodied over the vulnerable, that gives more money to people on Medicaid than on Medicare,” he said. “We are trying to fix those things and match those so we have a system that works.”