House Republicans are falling further apart in negotiations on a reconciliation package that represents President Trump’s first-year legislative agenda, with just weeks to go before their self-imposed deadline.
GOP lawmakers on Wednesday sent conflicting signals on how to cut Medicaid, indicating they were no closer to a deal on one of the biggest points in their internal negotiations.
On another key issue, raising the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, they lost ground in talks to reach a compromise.
Republicans said they would pass a package Trump has described as his “big beautiful bill” by the Memorial Day recess, which was always seen as an ambitious goal.
With the first full week of May nearly at a close, they appear to have their work cut out for them.
“There’s a lot of different parameters and there’s a lot of different opinions,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), a member of the SALT Caucus and Ways and Means Committee. “And so we just got to figure it out.”
Leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Ways and Means Committee met separately with their respective members on Wednesday to go over the pain points holding up agreements — SALT for Ways and Means, Medicaid for Energy and Commerce.
The co-chairs of the SALT Caucus who want to raise the cap to benefit their constituents in high-tax states — Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and Young Kim (R-Calif.) — joined the Ways and Means meeting to discuss the deduction cap.
But one SALT Caucus member who got a readout, Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), gave a dismal assessment: If negotiations were on the 25-yard-line with 75 yards to go before, now they’re on the 15-yard-line.
In a sign of the work that must be done, Malliotakis said the SALT caucus did not present a number for their ideal deduction cap during the meeting. Kim, however, told Spectrum News that her ideal cap is $62,000 — a number that Malliotakis was coy on.
“I’m gonna try to get as high of a number as I can,” Malliotakis told reporters when asked about the figure.
Meanwhile, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) gave a signal that appeared to contradict the one Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sent a day earlier on Medicare cuts.
Guthrie said the portion of the bill his committee is crafting may include “per capita caps” on people in the Medicaid expansion population.
Johnson on Tuesday night said Republicans would likely rule out making that controversial change as well as nix a plan to directly reduce the enhanced federal match for states that expanded Medicaid, known as the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP).
“I wasn't in that meeting, so I don’t know exactly what was said,” Guthrie said of Johnson’s remarks while emerging from the meeting. He said it his “understanding” that per capita caps “were still kind of alive.”
Guthrie said he still needs to talk to leadership about it. Asked about the disagreement Wednesday night, Johnson was coy but deferred to Guthrie.
“He’s the chairman, they’re working through it,” the Speaker said. “I said likely for a reason because it’s not a final decision and I’m, at the end of the day I defer to my chairs but we’ve got to build consensus around all the ideas so we’ll see.”
Guthrie’s comments came after Johnson met with moderate Republicans worried about changes to Medicaid on Tuesday.
Amid the uncertainty, hardline conservatives are also making a show of force in demanding deficit reductions.
Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-Pa.) led a letter with more than 30 other members on Wednesday warning House leaders from veering away from the House targets for cuts in the budget framework, as the Senate set lower targets. It is unclear how those differences would be reconciled.
“We reaffirm that our support depends, at minimum, on the bill’s strict adherence to the House framework for instructions contained in the concurrent budget resolution,” the letter said.
Both the Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce Committees are aiming to mark up their pieces of the legislation next week so that the House can meet its Memorial Day deadline. But neither markup has been officially scheduled.
“We’re still hoping, for sure,” Guthrie said of the markup timeline. “We're still working through all the provisions, still discussing.”
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), the chairman of the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, said no decisions have been made on the details of the legislation.
“We have not put anything in yet, we have not taken anything out,” Carter said.
Trump has insisted he does not want to cut Medicaid benefits. On Sunday, he again pledged to protect Medicaid, insisting that Congress wasn’t planning to cut it.
Republicans do have general agreement on other Medicaid changes like instituting federal work requirements; excluding noncitizens from eligibility; and letting states make eligibility checks more frequently.
But Guthrie’s committee is tasked with finding $880 billion in cuts to help reach the larger spending cut target of at least $1.5 trillion — and reaching that number without entertaining the more controversial measures would be incredibly difficult.
Adding to the obstacles for lawmakers, a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Wednesday found millions of people would lose health insurance under the proposals Republicans are considering.
For instance, a cap on Medicaid spending for beneficiaries in the expansion population would save $225 billion and result in 1.5 million additional people being uninsured by 2034.
Moderate Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) responded to news about the CBO estimates by reaffirming his opposition to per capita caps and other controversial Medicaid changes.
“As I have said throughout, I’m against any changes that would take away benefits from eligible recipients. I’m a no on per capita caps, changes to FMAP, or changes to the provider tax, among other proposed changes,” Lawler posted on X.
Both per capita caps and an explicit reduction in federal match have been red lines for a number of moderate and vulnerable Republicans, while hard-line conservatives said deep Medicaid cuts were a necessity.
“I just don't think you get the necessary deficit reduction without keeping a lot of things on Medicaid table,” Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md), chairman of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday.
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