House Republicans are becoming more divided on passing a reconciliation package that meets with President Donald Trump's call for a "big beautiful bill" by their self-imposed Memorial Day deadline.
Cuts to Medicaid and raises for the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap are the current sticking points, with the lawmakers indicating that they are not any closer to reaching compromises on the legislation, reported The Hill Thursday.
"There's a lot of different parameters and there's a lot of different opinions," Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., a member of the SALT Caucus and Ways and Means Committee, said. "So we just got to figure it out."
Leaders of the Ways and Means Committee met with members on Wednesday to go over the points holding up agreements on the SALT cap, while the House Energy and Commerce Committee's leaders met with members to discuss the Medicaid cuts.
Reps. Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., and Young Kim, R-Calif., who chair the SALT Caucus, joined with the Ways and Means members to discuss the deduction cap, which, if raised, would benefit constituents in states with high taxes.
The SALT deduction, a provision in the U.S. tax code, allows people who itemize deductions to further reduce how much federal tax they owe based on how much they spent in state and local taxes.
Malliotakis said the SALT Caucus did not give any figures about what their ideal deduction would be, adding that she will keep working to "try to get as high a number as I can."
Kim commented in an interview that her ideal cap would be $62,000.
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., meanwhile, contradicted House Speaker Mike Johnson on Medicaid.
He said his committee's portion of the bill may include "per capita caps" in the Medicaid expansion population.
Johnson, however, said Tuesday that Republicans would likely rule out that change, along with a plan reducing the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, an enhanced federal match for states expanding Medicaid.
Johnson deferred to Guthrie when asked about the disagreement.
"He's the chairman, they're working through it," the Louisiana Republican said. "I said likely for a reason because it's not a final decision. At the end of the day, I defer to my chairs, but we've got to build consensus around all the ideas."
Guthrie's committee has been tasked with finding $880 billion in cuts for the program to allow the overall bill to cut $1.5 trillion.
But some of the proposals being floated could cause millions of people to lose their health insurance, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Wednesday.
Trump, meanwhile, insisted he does not want to cut Medicaid and in an interview Sunday repeated his promise to protect the federal healthcare program.
There has been some general agreement on some changes, however, including adding federal work requirements, excluding noncitizens from the programs, and allowing states to make more frequent eligibility checks.
"I just don't think you get the necessary deficit reduction without keeping a lot of things on the Medicaid table," House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., said Wednesday.
Hardline conservatives are also demanding deficit reductions as the talks continue.
Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., in a letter with 30 other GOP lawmakers, warned House leaders against steering away from targeted budget cuts, while the Senate has set lower targets.
"We reaffirm that our support depends, at minimum, on the bill's strict adherence to the House framework for instructions contained in the concurrent budget resolution," they said in the document.