Hill Republicans are delivering a flurry of rare rebukes of the Trump administration, in the latest sign that the president doesn’t have complete control over the GOP governing trifecta.
First, Speaker Mike Johnson split with the White House over making steep Medicaid cuts to fund the GOP’s megabill. The speaker told POLITICO Thursday he’s “not a big fan” of the White House’s alternative proposal: slash drug costs by pursuing a “one favored nation” policy, which would link certain government payments for pharmaceuticals to the lower prices paid abroad.
That schism comes as House GOP leaders are furiously looking for ways to pay for their party-line package that don’t involve cutting Medicaid benefits — per President Donald Trump’s wishes — or a popular food-assistance program. Struggles to reach consensus on both prompted Republicans to hold off scheduling the Energy and Commerce and Agriculture markups they hoped to hold next week to advance portions of the broader bill.
Elsewhere Thursday, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole was showing impatience with the White House, which is due to send over a preliminary “skinny budget” later Friday of broad funding targets but still needs to transmit a full budget request later this month. The president is not the “commander” of Congress, the Oklahoma Republican told reporters, as GOP appropriators grow antsy for input from the administration so they can start writing the 12 annual funding bills.
And across the Capitol, Republican senators displayed unusual public discomfort with one of Trump’s nominees: Ed Martin for U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, who has in the past defended Jan. 6 rioters. Some Republicans refused to say whether they would vote for him. That includes a reliable leadership ally, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who said this week: “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” Other Republicans are waiting to see if the White House pulls the plug on Martin’s nomination before they’re forced to vote or otherwise take a position on it.
These fissures, like many we’ve seen before, are unlikely to last. But the drips of GOP pushback are a notable glimpse of how Republicans are trying to retain a semblance of their autonomy in the Trump era.
What else we’re watching:
– Waltz back in the hot seat: Trump nominated embattled ex-national security adviser Mike Waltz to serve as U.N. ambassador on Thursday — and in doing so, Trump is setting up the former representative for a tough confirmation hearing that will likely also bring heat back onto Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It also could create another conference-wrangling challenge for Majority Leader John Thune.
– Valadao’s Medicaid machinations: House Republican moderates are working behind the scenes to rein in the conference’s ambitions to slash Medicaid. And Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), who runs the centrist-oriented Republican Governance Group, is behind the effort. He has spent the last several weeks in near-constant communication with colleagues, which includes weekly meetings with the chairs of key ideological caucuses across the GOP conference and an ongoing text chat with nearly a dozen members.
– The next big markup: House Natural Resources published its portion of the GOP reconciliation bill Thursday night, going well beyond its $1 billion deficit reduction target by mandating more frequent oil and gas lease sales and speeding permit approvals for energy projects. The committee plans to mark up the legislation Tuesday that would reduce the deficit by $15 billion, according to committee aides. It would also pull back small parts of funding from the climate law known as the Inflation Reduction Act.
James Bikales, Jordain Carney, Meredith Lee Hill and James Siegel contributed to this report.
