Mike Johnson courts fiscal hawks to get Trumps big, beautiful bill back on track after Friday setback
House Speaker Mike Johnson teased plans to bump up the timeline for implementing work requirements on Medicaid to help win over support from fiscal hawks on the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that got shot down in committee on Friday.Five Republicans had voted against advancing President Trump’s marquee legislation from the Budget Committee last Friday in a key setback.
Four of those Republicans voted it down due to concerns that it didn’t cut spending enough, while a fifth did so for procedural reasons.“What they were complaining about or mostly concerned about, I think is, for example, work requirements in Medicaid.
They wanted them to be implemented earlier rather than later.Well, so do we,” Johnson (R-La.) told “Fox News Sunday.”“The concern is … the ability of the states to retool their systems and ensure the verification processes, to make sure that all the new laws and all the new safeguards that we’re placing can actually be enforced,” he added.
“We’re working through all those details, and we’ll get it done.”Currently, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” would implement a mandated 80-hour-per-month work requirement on able-bodied adults aged 19-64 starting in 2029.Volunteer work and schooling would count toward that rule.Fiscal hawks wanted that implemented much sooner.
Johnson didn’t specify where the compromise would be but noted that talks are ongoing.At 10 p.m.
ET on Sunday, the House Budget Committee is slated to reconvene and continue consideration of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” after adjustments have been made to it.Johnson also didn’t address how GOP leadership plans on handling opposition from blue state Republicans who have demanded a larger increase to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap than the $30,000 figure currently included in the bill.
The SALT cap sits at $10,000 under current law.Concern over SALT is one of the biggest obstacles to getting the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed through the ...