


President Donald Trump’s visit to House Republicans on Tuesday didn’t change Rep. Andy Harris’ mind on the spending bill stuck in Congress.
“We’re still a long ways away,” Harris told reporters after the meeting. “But we can get there.”
Harris, an Eastern Shore Republican, wasn’t the only holdout to walk away believing that the president’s appearance didn’t move the needle. Several lawmakers remain unconvinced by different aspects of the bill.
Members from New York and California still haven’t reached a deal on requested tax changes. Other moderates are uneasy about cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that could be politically unpopular. But arguably the greatest roadblock for Republican leaders is Harris and members of the House Freedom Caucus.
Multiple lawmakers in the conservative group are refusing to support the bill. They say it doesn’t do enough to address the national debt.
“The president, I don’t think, convinced enough people that the bill is adequate as it is,” Harris said, adding that the president has called for eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse” in Medicaid. “And we have not eliminated waste, fraud and abuse” in Medicaid with the current bill.
During the meeting, Trump reportedly told the conference to not “(mess) around” with Medicaid except for rooting out waste, fraud and abuse — a phrase that has practically become a trademark of his administration.
But lawmakers’ interpretation of the phrase varies. Harris and other conservatives say that the current bill doesn’t meet Trump’s directive.
Republicans have staked most of Trump’s legislative agenda on one spending package. The massive bill includes funding for several of Trump’s top priorities — border security, no taxes on tips and overtime, and extending his 2017 tax cuts — but it also includes roughly $1.5 trillion in proposed spending cuts.
Lawmakers achieved most of the cuts by targeting social programs like SNAP and Medicaid.
If it passed as written, the legislation would impact millions of people’s health care coverage. Democrats claim that roughly 13.7 million Americans would be affected. Republicans dispute that estimate. Experts say the figure would be closer to 8.6 million.
(Should the bill pass the House, the Senate is expected to revise it. Multiple Republican senators have indicated they would oppose alterations to Medicaid.)
A group of lawmakers, including Harris, have advocated for comprehensive structural changes, starting with the federal share of state Medicaid spending, the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage.
Many House Republicans are reluctant to include changes of that scale. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has indicated that shifting the percentage is off the table.
Harris addressed the conservative push for changes after the meeting with Trump.
“We could eliminate waste, fraud and abuse without going into FMAP,” Harris said. But doing so would mean demands for other changes, like the provider taxes that help fund Medicaid, he added.
Johnson has set a self-imposed Memorial Day deadline for the House to pass the bill. He had tentatively planned to hold a vote later this week.
House members are expected to return to their districts next week for their Memorial Day recesses. Harris has advocated that any vote be postponed until after the chamber returns.
Have a news tip? Contact Ben Mause at bmause@baltsun.com or on X: @BenMause.