GOP scrambling after key Medicaid provisions in Trump mega-bill found to violate U.S. Senate rules

The U.S. Senate parliamentarian has advised that a Medicaid provider tax overhaul central to President Donald Trump’s tax cut and spending bill does not adhere to the chamber’s procedural rules, delivering a crucial blow as Republicans rush to finish the package this week (Source: “Key Medicaid provision in Trump’s bill is found to violate Senate rules. The GOP is scrambling,” Associated Press, June 26).

Guidance from the parliamentarian is rarely ignored and Republican leaders are now forced to consider difficult options. Republicans were counting on big cuts to Medicaid and other programs to offset trillions of dollars in Trump tax breaks, their top priority. Additionally, the parliamentarian, who is the Senate’s non-partisan chief arbiter of its often-complicated rules, advised against various GOP provisions barring certain immigrants from health care programs.

The outcome is a setback as Senate Republicans race toward a weekend session to pass the bill and send it back to the House for another vote before Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.

GOP leaders were already struggling to rally support for Medicaid changes that some senators said went too far and would have left millions without coverage. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said more than 10.9 million more people would not have health care under the House-passed bill; Senate Republicans were proposing deeper cuts.