GOP hardliners threaten to stall Trump agenda on eve of president’s visit to Capitol Hill

By Manu Raju, Lauren Fox and Sarah Ferris, CNN

(CNN) — Key GOP conservatives remain opposed to approving President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill in the House this week – and even Trump himself may not be able to change their minds.

On the eve of Trump’s visit to Capitol Hill, multiple members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus told CNN they’re still in talks with Speaker Mike Johnson about tweaking the legislation. And unlike Johnson, they see no reason to rush it to the floor this week.

Asked what he would say to Trump if the president personally asked for his vote, Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris said, “I would convince him that this moment in history is when he reverses the spending trajectory of the country, which he has run on … I would make the case that this ‘big, beautiful bill’ could get more beautiful, with a little more work.”

Harris, who said he is opposed to the current draft of the bill, rejected Johnson’s push to pass the bill before the House leaves for the Memorial Day recess.

“I think it’s pretty obvious that they’re going to need more time,” Harris said Monday night. “These are complicated discussions. These are complicated issues. These are trillions of dollars.”

As the problems pile up for Johnson, Trump plans to make his pitch to Republicans at a meeting at the US Capitol on Tuesday, according to four people familiar with the plans. It will be the first time the president will speak in person with the full group of House Republicans since the conference began drafting his agenda – coming at a critical time for Johnson as he attempts to pass the bill this week despite a sizable number of “no” votes as of Monday night.

Rep. Chip Roy, another GOP ultraconservative, said he does not agree with Johnson that Memorial Day is a legitimate deadline.

“It’s arbitrary and it’s pressure, and it’s just like Christmas and Easter, but it’s the way the town works,” Roy told CNN of the Memorial Day deadline.

“They’re trying to run it in through the jet fumes, and I just don’t agree with that,” Roy said. “I’ll keep working in good faith to try to make the bill as good as it can be, and then decide where things stand. I think that’s not the way we should do business.”

And it’s not just conservatives who are frustrated with Johnson’s strategy. He is also struggling to win votes among the more moderate wing of his party, a group of whom have threatened to oppose the bill without a big state and local tax break – that conservatives like Harris and Roy loathe.

Johnson confirmed to reporters Wednesday night, after a meeting with some of his more moderate members, that he still hopes to have the full House vote Wednesday.

“That’s the plan,” he said. Asked if he was willing to hold the vote before Congress’s budget office knows how much the bill costs, Johnson said yes because: “We have a timetable we have to meet.”

But GOP leaders are still knee-deep in sticky policy issues. And if they lean one way – giving out big state and local tax breaks, for instance – they could lose a half-dozen or more conservatives on the other side

Among the major issues that are still unresolved: The timeframe over when new Medicaid work requirements would kick in, whether to change the federal-state cost sharing program for Medicaid, when green energy tax credits would be phased out and how much Americans can deduct from the state and local taxes they pay.

Johnson told reporters Monday night that he had ruled out any changes to the federal-state cost sharing for Medicaid – despite a last-minute push by many of the same conservatives seeking to delay the bill. The speaker added that he is still working on final details for how much to roll back the green energy tax breaks.

There are also big questions: How much the sweeping bill will add to the deficit and how many Americans would lose access to benefits like Medicaid and food stamps — since the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has yet to release an official estimate on the bill’s impact to the debt and the economy.

House GOP leadership aides said Monday morning that key decisions had not been finalized even though Johnson wants the bill passed out of his chamber by Thursday.

“Everything is in plan all the way until the end,” said one leadership aide, noting the talks are “extremely difficult” given the narrowness of the majority and the diversity of the demands. But aides contended that “95%” of the bill had been agreed to among House Republicans.

The bill calls for first-time work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries to be implemented by 2029, but GOP hardliners are demanding that timeframe be moved up — something that is causing angst among more moderate members. Moreover, some of the hardliners want to pare back the amount of money the federal government pays into state-run Medicaid programs, a change that moderates have long resisted.

Moving up the start date of Medicaid’s work requirements would boost the amount of savings in the bill, but it would also strip coverage from more people, experts say. Currently, the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Medicaid provisions are expected to reduce spending by $625 billion but leave 7.6 million more people uninsured by 2034, according to preliminary estimates from the Congressional Budget Office released by the GOP. The work requirement proposal accounts for nearly half the savings, at $300 billion.

Some of the more moderate GOP members are also demanding an increase of the proposed $30,000 cap on the amount taxpayers can deduct on state and local taxes they pay — a push that would increase the price tag but also cause a revolt on the right.

A source involved in the so-called SALT negotiations told CNN Monday morning that the issue had not been resolved, and they had not heard much on where leadership was going on it. Asked for an update on where leadership had left things over the last 24 hours, the source responded with a cricket emoji.

Johnson is expected to continue talks Monday with his members as they negotiate final changes to the bill before the House Rules Committee meets at 1 a.m. on Wednesday for a key vote to advance the package to the full House.

At that meeting, an amendment would be added to the bill to make the changes to win over holdouts in his conference.

This story has been updated with additional details.

CNN’s Annie Grayer, Haley Talbot, Sarah Ferris and Tami Luhby contributed to this report.

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