{"id":10673,"date":"2025-06-26T21:01:46","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T21:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/megabill-threatens-to-languish-as-challenges-pile-up\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T21:01:46","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T21:01:46","slug":"megabill-threatens-to-languish-as-challenges-pile-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/megabill-threatens-to-languish-as-challenges-pile-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Megabill threatens to languish as challenges pile up"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Republicans aren\u2019t panicking about their fraying domestic policy bill<\/a>. But they aren\u2019t exactly sure about how it\u2019s all going to come together, either.<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans emerged from a closed-door lunch meeting Thursday putting on a brave face about the megabill\u2019s progress. Yet this time last week, members were expecting revised text of the sprawling bill Monday with votes starting a couple of days later. In other words, they thought they\u2019d be close to done by now.<\/p>\n

Instead, Majority Leader John Thune<\/a> refrained from giving his members a specific timeline during a closed-door lunch Thursday, according to three attendees granted anonymity to describe the private meeting. Senators are preparing to stay in town and vote through the weekend, but internal policy disputes and procedural roadblocks thrown up by the chamber\u2019s parliamentarian are keeping firmer plans in flux.<\/p>\n

A July 4 deadline being pushed by the White House<\/a> hangs over Capitol Hill as the only real forcing mechanism, and some Republicans said they were glad to have it even if many others harbor doubts about whether that target can be met.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think it gets easier to pass going longer,\u201d said Sen. Kevin Cramer<\/a> of North Dakota. \u201cThe more time we take, the more people find things they want to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest blow for the GOP came after Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough warned that key Medicaid language would not comply with the strict rules<\/a> that govern what can be included in a bill Republicans intend to pass along party lines using special budget rules. GOP senators expressed confidence they would be able to address MacDonough\u2019s concerns, which some described as \u201ctechnical,\u201d and salvage the proposal.<\/p>\n

But that, Thune acknowledged, will take time and threaten his plan of holding an initial vote Friday: \u201cThe parliamentarian\u2019s decisions may push that back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noticeably absent from the debate early Thursday was President Donald Trump, who has the bulk of his legislative agenda tied up in the bill. He returned late Wednesday from a trip to Europe and is scheduled to hold a White House event on the megabill Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

His lobbying is widely seen as a necessary ingredient in getting the bill done. And for all the anxiety about the parliamentarian decisions Thursday, the more profound issue for Republicans are their internal divides about the policy provisions in the bill \u2014 particularly those dealing with Medicaid.<\/p>\n

MacDonough\u2019s rejection of initial language curtailing state provider taxes, which most states use to leverage federal health care dollars, emboldened the so-called \u201cMedicaid moderates,\u201d who believe the proposal is not ready for prime time. Nor have they been convinced by leadership\u2019s offer of a $15 billion rural hospital fund, though negotiations are expected to force that number higher.<\/p>\n

Sen. Josh Hawley<\/a> (R-Mo.), who spoke with Trump Wednesday about the Medicaid language, said the ruling gave Republicans \u201ca chance to get it right\u201d and expected Trump would be more involved now that he\u2019s \u201cback on terra firma.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he wants this done. But he wants it done well. He doesn\u2019t want this to be a Medicaid cut bill \u2014 he made that very clear to me,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cHe said this is a tax cut bill, it\u2019s not a Medicaid cut bill. I think he\u2019s tired of hearing about all these Medicaid cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo<\/a> (R-Idaho) walked Republicans through MacDonough\u2019s rulings during the closed-door lunch. Most left saying it would be relatively straightforward to tweak the proposal and keep it in the bill. Senate GOP leaders are counting on the questioned provisions to generate some $250 billion in savings to offset tax cuts and other costly items.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling much better after lunch,\u201d Sen. Ron Johnson<\/a> (R-Wis.) said walking out. \u201cThe parliamentarian did kind of a little bit of a hand grenade, but I’ve been encouraged by what we heard.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tight-lipped Crapo would not discuss details of MacDonough\u2019s rulings Thursday. But Sen. John Hoeven<\/a> of North Dakota said that, based on Crapo\u2019s briefing, the issue had to do with a provision that would freeze provider taxes in states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a technical issue with a technical solution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Other pitfalls remain to be seen. Republicans are still waiting for MacDonough to issue rulings on their tax plan, while other committees are waiting on final decisions on a crucial food-aid plan and other provisions they had to rework after she rejected their initial efforts.<\/p>\n

And while senators have been focused on resolving their own disputes, they also have to be mindful of the narrowly divided House \u2014 where pockets of Republicans have continued to raise angry objections to changes their Senate counterparts have been making to the bill that passed the House last month.<\/p>\n

No group has been more vocal than the blue-state Republicans pushing for an expansion of the state-and-local-tax deduction. They received an offer brokered by the administration Thursday that would keep the House-passed $40,000 deduction cap but lower the income threshold and change how the deduction is indexed to inflation, according to three people granted anonymity to describe the talks.<\/p>\n

Rep. Nick LaLota<\/a> (R-N.Y.) was one of several key players who poured cold water on the offer, saying that he \u201cdeclined the offer to participate \u2026 in further faux-negotiations until the Senate gets real.\u201d Sen. Markwayne Mullin<\/a> (R-Okla.), a key go-between, insisted \u201cwe\u2019re going to find a landing spot.\u201d<\/p>\n

For House conservatives, meanwhile, the outrage of the day was MacDonough\u2019s new decisions axing the health care provisions \u2014 including some aimed at excluding undocumented immigrants from federal benefits. Several publicly called on senators to overrule the parliamentarian, or fire her outright \u2014 a power Thune holds.<\/p>\n

Most Republican senators rejected that demand Thursday, warning that it would derail the reconciliation process.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople should remember that what comes around goes around when it comes to the parliamentarian,\u201d said Sen. Susan Collins<\/a> (R-Maine), a key undecided vote. \u201cShe may rule the way you like one day, the way you don\u2019t the next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thune also rejected calls to sidestep MacDonough<\/a>, though the headache could become substantially worse if Trump weighs in. So far the White House is staying out of the Senate\u2019s procedural machinations and even Trump\u2019s allies are signaling that he should keep quiet when it comes to MacDonough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope he doesn\u2019t,\u201d Cramer said.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Guggenheim and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republicans aren\u2019t panicking about their fraying domestic policy bill. But they aren\u2019t exactly sure about how it\u2019s all going to come together, either. Senate Republicans emerged from a closed-door lunch meeting Thursday putting on a brave face about the megabill\u2019s progress. Yet this time last week, members were expecting revised text of the sprawling bill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10673\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}