Republicans were scrambling Wednesday to salvage their “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill amid a revolt from conservatives over the measure’s growing price tag.
President Donald Trump and Republican leadership were busy buttonholing members from across the conference’s political spectrum, with centrists also still wary of deeper cuts to Medicaid that came over from the Senate Tuesday than were in the House-passed bill.
Procedural votes on the rule for floor debate were held open more than two hours as House leaders tried to convince members of the hard-right Freedom Caucus to back the measure. After two hours had passed, the ranks of members thinned in the chamber while leaders huddled with conservative holdouts in a nearby room and Democrats began occasional shouts seeking “regular order.”
