Hawley in the Capitol. Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
Sen. Josh Hawley is emerging as a key player pushing back on a major Medicaid overhaul as GOP leaders make new promises not to make deep cuts to the safety net program.
Why it matters: Hawley is positioning himself as standard-bearer for a more Trump-aligned Senate Republican caucus, and appears to be in sync with the president himself on this issue.
What they're saying: "21% of the residents of my state receive Medicaid or CHIP," Hawley told Axios. "That's almost a million and a half Missourians, so I want to make sure for folks who are working and getting those benefits that they're able to do so."
Driving the news: Speaker Mike Johnson and President Trump also made new Medicaid commitments Wednesday.
- Johnson told CNN that per capita caps are "off the table" and that Republicans would not lower the federal share of Medicaid funding, known as the FMAP. That rules out two major areas for cuts.
- Trump, meanwhile, said at a Cabinet meeting that "we're not going to touch" Medicaid, other than looking for "fraud."
Yes, but: The House budget resolution still instructs the Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in savings, and it's not clear how lawmakers can hit that number without major Medicaid changes.
- Hawley, though, said he expects the House budget will be changed by the Senate, which could lower the savings target and relieve some of the pressure for Medicaid cuts.
- Noting Trump's public remarks, Hawley also said the president "told GOP senators directly to their faces that he did not want Medicaid cuts, and I take it to mean from that, he doesn't want benefit cuts."
Between the lines: Hawley and Johnson said they do support one significant change to Medicaid: imposing work requirements on able-bodied recipients.
- "Work requirements I think is something you'd get every Republican to agree on," Hawley said.
- But work requirements save $109 billion over 10 years, per the CBO, leaving a long way to go to $880 billion.
- Democrats also argue that many people who are in fact working would fall off program rolls and lose coverage if they get caught up in red tape.
The bottom line: It's not clear how Republicans are going to square their Medicaid promises with their budget targets — although Johnson is increasingly open to adopting a "current policy baseline," which would mean Congress wouldn't have to offset the $4.5 trillion it would take to extend Trump's tax cuts.
- "The policy makes a lot of sense to me," Johnson told reporters Wednesday, per our Axios Hill Leaders colleague Hans Nichols.
