Congress
GOP moderates warm up to Mike Johnson’s latest Medicaid plan
Key Republican moderates said Tuesday they had grown more comfortable with a revised House GOP effort to overhaul Medicaid following an evening meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson and other leaders.
Johnson needs to find near-unanimity among House Republicans as he finalizes the GOP megabill central to President Donald Trump’s agenda, and several of the centrists emerged from the closed-door huddle sounding closer to yes. The plan is centered around work requirements for beneficiaries, more frequent eligibility checks in the program and cracking down on coverage for noncitizens, they said.
Meanwhile, some controversial changes the moderates had blanched at appear to be omitted from the latest plan: cutting the federal share of funding for states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and capping federal payments to those expansion states.
Asked if Republicans were pursuing changes to the federal cost share, known as FMAPs, Johnson replied: “No.”
Asked about “per capita caps” on Medicaid funding, he added, “I think we’re ruling that out as well, but stay tuned.”
Republicans discussed the caps proposal at length in the room, according to members in attendance. There was “lots of opposition” to applying the caps for expansion states, according to one attendee granted anonymity to describe the private meeting.
The retreat from the most ambitious cost-cutting proposals risks inciting House GOP hard-liners. One leader of that group, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, said on X that caps were “necessary to stop robbing from the vulnerable to fund the able-bodied.”
Republicans have debated for months how to handle states that have expanded Medicaid to people with higher incomes, though still near the poverty line, under the Affordable Care Act. Several states have so-called trigger laws that would end or pull back on the expansion program if the federal government reduces their role, and many lawmakers are leery invoking those provisions.
Even beyond the moderates, conservative Republicans across Virginia and other expansion states have warned GOP leaders not to pursue deeper spending cuts that would throw hundreds of thousands of Americans off Medicaid rolls. Republicans are now parsing what the fallout would be in their individual states over some per capita cap changes.
“I have to see in Arizona if the per capita cap impacts the trigger laws. I don’t think I’m 100 percent clear on that,” Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.) told reporters. “That would be a deal-breaker for me if it does trigger it, obviously.”
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said he remains opposed to both controversial proposals: “I don’t support any change to FMAP. I don’t support per capita caps.”
“We’re coming up with options, we’re discussing them, hashing through them, debating them,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.). “They’ll come back with a revision.” Malliotakis left the door open to capping the federal government’s payments for certain beneficiaries in states that have expanded Medicaid.
“States need to have some skin in the game,” she said.
Members said a policy the Trump administration has pushed as an alternative to the steep Medicaid cuts — linking what the program pays for drugs to the lower prices paid abroad — wasn’t a focus.
Several other Republicans said the meeting was more productive than previous conversations around Medicaid changes.
“I feel better about it,” said one vulnerable House Republican who was in the room.
“I think he’s got something that’s workable,” Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) said, adding, “there’s a few wrinkles that need to be worked out, but I think he’s on … a good path.”
Some members said they want to know more about what Trump thinks.
“We have to make sure that we know where the president is on this and also where the Senate is,” Ciscomani said. “We can’t be just unilaterally moving this without knowing where they’re going to be and then have some surprises there at the end.”
Rep. Lori Trahan on Wednesday unveiled a discussion draft for a bill that would make artificial intelligence developers liable when their products cause harm.
The legislation comes after OpenAI’s agents escaped containment and autonomously hacked into AI platform Hugging Face and accessed U.S. government websites.
The Clear Liability for Artificial Intelligence Misconduct Act aims to make it easier for those harmed by so-called rogue AI to bring claims against developers. Trahan’s bill does not preempt new state laws on AI liability — historically a prerequisite for attracting Republican support in the House.
“When someone breaks the law and hurts you, you can take them to court. That shouldn’t change just because the wrongdoer is an AI agent,” Trahan (D-Mass.) said in a statement. “Developers have already built systems capable of acting on their own and causing real damage. The CLAIM Act makes sure they answer for what their systems do.”
Legal experts have warned that existing laws require proof of intent or negligence, standards that can be difficult to show in court when AI models go rogue.
Trahan’s bill would ensure AI developers are unable to argue that their AI systems are incapable of intent. Instead, courts “would presume an AI system acted with the state of mind a person taking the same actions would have had.”
Trahan spokesperson Francis Grubar said work on the CLAIM Act began almost immediately after theJuly introduction of the FRONTIER Act, legislation with Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) that would grant the government power to restrict the deployment of AI models deemed to pose catastrophic risks. While that bill aims to prevent serious harms before they happen, Grubar said the CLAIM Act would address how to impose accountability for existing damages.
Unlike an AI liability proposal announced last week by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Trahan’s legislation would not amend the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Grubar said the CLAIM Act would instead impose clearer liability on a broader range of harms, as well as autonomous or AI-enabled cyberattacks.
The CFFA, an anti-hacking law that bars individuals from accessing a computer without consent, requires proof of intent to hack into a computer system, which can’t be as easily applied to AI agents.
The Hugging Face incident, along with a flurry of other disclosed hacking incidents by rogue AI agents from OpenAI and other AI developers, has sparked a debate over how companies should be held legally liable for their AI systems.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in an interview with Blue Light News’s Decoded podcast, said there should be a new “liability framework” to hold developers accountable for AI-powered cyberattacks. His comments come after White House officials like Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton, who was recently appointed as AI czar by President Donald Trump, previously said that existing product liability laws are sufficient for now in addressing AI’s risks.
Vice President JD Vance will take questions from Michigan voters in a CBS News town hall airing Oct. 17 as the Trump administration prepares a closing message to voters ahead of the midterms.
The town hall comes amid a blitz of campaign events for Vance and President Donald Trump as their party faces multiple headwinds that could cost them control of the House and Senate.
Michigan’s Senate contest between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers has become one of the cycle’s closely watched battleground contests. Michigan also has several competitive House races and will elect a new governor for the first time in eight years.
Vance campaigned in Michigan with Rogers, gubernatorial nominee John James and Mike Bouchard Jr., the GOP nominee in the 10th Congressional District, at an Aug. 31 rally in Sterling Heights. Rep. Lisa McClain also appeared at the event.
The one-hour special, moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor Tony Dokoupil, will be recorded earlier in the week. Vance and Dokoupil will discuss issues facing voters, including affordability, tariffs, immigration, health care, artificial intelligence, the war with Iran and the state of American democracy, according to CBS News.
The two were scheduled for a town hall interview in March, but the vice president postponed due to the war with Iran.
The vice president’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Commerce Committee with vast jurisdiction over artificial intelligence policy, outlined six AI safety principles Wednesday morning — tenets she believes should underpin any legislation to stave off the greatest threats posed by the rapidly-evolving technology.
“To manage risks from advanced AI systems we need clear safety standards, continuous testing, and reporting of serious failures,” the Washington Democrat said in a statement. “America can lead the world in AI by building systems that are not only more capable, but safer and more secure.”
Cantwell’s framework would encompass six priority areas: enforceable safety standards for frontier models, continuous testing, disclosure and oversight, public-private partnerships, protection for children and workers and adherence to U.S.-led global standards.
To directly address risks posed by the technology, her framework would have federal experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and other agencies establish clear federal rules to address harms, with specialized standards for open-source AI models to reduce risks of catastrophic misuse.
The senator is also recommending that the federal government provide developers with guidance on how to accelerate U.S. leadership on AI without sacrificing basic safety protocols.
On testing, Cantwell argues the government and independent experts should provide constant oversight and “continually scrutinize and stress test covered AI models,” particularly when sensitive information or secure facilities are involved.
She also says AI systems must have built-in safeguards to ensure they halt self-modification that could bypass safety controls. And she states that advanced models should not be released until they have undergone an independent, comprehensive audit — similar to outside auditors examining a company’s financial statements.
Cantwell, a former tech executive, has for years pursued similar priorities. But her new framework comes ahead of a midterm election that could return control of the Senate to Democrats, handing Cantwell back of the Commerce Committee gavel.
It also comes as lawmakers are under pressure to regulate the AI industry but are showing few signs that they will be able to reach consensus, across the aisle or even within their own party.
Senators had hoped for hearings, markups and briefings on AI legislation before leaving Washington until after the November elections, but little progress was made. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the current Commerce Committee chair, has continued to say he intends to hold a markup on AI-related bills but has punted multiple times, saying senators have yet to reach agreement on any bipartisan measure.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) have been trying to cut a deal on legislation to prevent and contain catastrophic risk from runaway AI technology, but bill text has so far failed to materialize.
Cantwell’s approach laid out Wednesday morning would be stricter and more comprehensive than what Thune and Klobuchar are expected to ultimately produce, based on similar legislation they have offered in the past.
Her approach of “constant oversight and vigilance” would also serve as a contrast to that of GOP leaders, who have consistently called for a “light touch” regulatory regime.
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