Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said on Monday that he believes the House can still pass President Donald J. Trump’s tax agenda by Memorial Day as House committees begin to mark up their respective portions of the budget. With Medicaid being the most contentious issue, House Republicans discussed a new, controversial proposal to cut federal spending for Medicaid in a closed-door meeting late Monday night, as lawmakers even beyond the moderate bloc are warning GOP leaders they will not swallow another alternative. Republican members of the Energy and Commerce Committee convened to finalize their panel’s portion of the party’s megabill and lawmakers discussed at length a new version of a plan to place so-called “per capita caps” on Medicaid funding to certain beneficiaries in states that have expanded the program under the Affordable Care Act. The emerging plan would still risk Medicaid health care services for millions of low-income people by shifting the costs of any additional coverage beyond the federal allotment to states as Republicans hunt for savings to pay for the party-line package to enact President Trump’s agenda. The expansion program that many GOP-led states have embraced has helped contribute to record-low rates of uninsured people.
For today, the Senate just confirmed former Senator David Perdue (R-Georgia) to become the ambassador to China, filling a key role for the administration while it remains embroiled in a trade battle with Beijing. Senators voted 67-29 to confirm Perdue, who served just one term in the upper chamber before losing narrowly in 2020 to Senator Jon Ossoff (D-Georgia). The confirmation is the first in what is set to be a string of ambassadorial confirmations in the coming days. Senators are expected today to confirm Warren Stephens as ambassador to Great Britain and Northern Ireland and also hold votes on businessmen Tom Barrack and Tilman Fertitta to become ambassadors to Turkey and Italy, respectively.
The House is in session and voting to advance legislation overturning five Biden-era energy and fish and wildlife rules, including waivers for California car emissions standards, with votes at 1:30 P.M. and 5 P.M.
