Senate Republicans could vote as soon as next week on a controversial proposal to nix federal waivers allowing California to set its own emissions standards — potentially bringing a simmering debate over the chamber’s rules to a head.

“We’re going to pass it next week,” Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told reporters after a closed-door conference lunch where they discussed the proposal at length.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune hasn’t yet committed to bringing the measure to the floor next week, and a key sponsor, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, cautioned that the schedule isn’t “100 percent decided” yet. The Senate has until the first week of June to act under the Congressional Review Act.

But Republicans are feeling increasingly confident that they will have the votes to undo California’s longstanding waivers after leaving a House-passed disapproval resolution in a weeks-long limbo. Republicans can lose three of their own and still let Vice President JD Vance break a tie.

“We’re going to do it,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said after Tuesday’s lunch, adding that he was confident because “I can tell the way people feel.” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a leadership adviser, also said that he was “very confident” that Republicans will have the votes to nix the California waiver.

The controversy is less about the policy merits and more about a Government Accountability Office ruling that said the waiver isn’t actually subject to CRA review. Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough backed up that finding, and the prospect of overruling her has spooked a handful of GOP senators wary of weakening Senate rules in a way that would come back to bite them when Democrats are back in control of Congress.

Republicans are hopeful they’ll have support from at least one member Democrats have targeted — former GOP Leader Mitch McConnell — but they haven’t locked in the votes yet and are actively working to sway the undecideds.

One of them, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said she continued to have “some procedural issues” and would meet Tuesday with Capito to work through them. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said in a brief interview she is discussing the issue with colleagues and not yet ready to make a decision.

“There is obviously apprehension if we go sideways on our own rules and so I’m having a lot of good conversations,” Murkowski said.

Democrats have sounded the alarm over a possible vote, warning GOP leaders in a letter earlier this month that it would be akin to deploying the “nuclear option” against the Senate’s rules. But Republicans are trying to minimize any blowback by focusing on the GAO ruling, not the parliamentarian.

“It’s about whether GAO is able to … veto a process that has never been questioned before,” Capito said. “I see it as us asserting our prerogative.”

Rep. Buddy Carter is proposing to strip three New Jersey lawmakers of their House committee assignments after they participated last week in a protest at a Newark migrant detention facility.

The Georgia Republican introduced a one-page resolution that would remove Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman from the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Rob Menendez from the Energy and Commerce Committee and Rep. LaMonica McIver from committees on Homeland Security and Small Business.

“This behavior constitutes an assault on our brave ICE agents and undermines the rule of law. The three members involved in this stunt do not deserve to sit on committees alongside serious lawmakers,” Carter said in a statement.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson already suggested the lawmakers could be arrested — something House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called a “red line” on Tuesday. Spokespeople for the three New Jersey Democrats did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Removing the lawmakers from their committees would be a less drastic step but still mark a major escalation in cross-party tensions. Republicans removed three Democrats from committees last Congress for various infractions; that followed Democrats booting Reps. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) from their panels when they held the majority in the Congress before that.

While Republicans say the lawmakers wrongfully forced their way into the detention facility, resulting in a chaotic scrum that was caught on video, Democrats argue they were legally entitled to inspect the facility as members of Congress. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested at the protest and later released.

Carter last week launched a Senate campaign against Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff. It’s not clear if the resolution will hit the House floor; a spokesperson for Speaker Mike Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Carter could seek to bring the measure up under a fast-track process that would bypass House leadership and committees.

Fox News first reported the bill’s introduction.

Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.

The Medicaid portions of the GOP megabill would lead to 10.3 million people losing coverage under the health safety net program and 7.6 million people going uninsured, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Republicans released the partial estimates Tuesday less than a half hour before the House Energy and Commerce Committee is scheduled to mark up its portion of the legislation central to enacting President Donald Trump’s agenda on taxes, the border and energy.

The panel has been tasked with finding $880 billion in savings, and the CBO confirmed the committee is on track to meet that target. CBO also projects that many of the major Medicaid policies would account for $625 billion in savings, though the scorekeeping office didn’t calculate the impacts of all provisions.

Work requirements would produce the biggest savings in the bill, accounting for nearly $301 billion over a decade — deeper than what had been initially anticipated. Overturning Biden-era rules on the program would save nearly $163 billion, and a moratorium on new taxes that states levy on providers to help finance their programs would recoup roughly $87 billion.

Republicans have argued that the changes will streamline Medicaid and allow it to better focus on serving the most vulnerable beneficiaries.

Democrats have argued the changes will lead to devastating impacts on health care access and have made the case — including by pointing to previous CBO estimates — that work requirements would simply remove people from coverage rather than motivate beneficiaries to find jobs.

“Republicans are trying to say this is kind of a moderate bill,” Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone told reporters Monday. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”