GOP Tax-Writer Sees Opportunity for Another Party-Line Bill

Another reconciliation bill represents a “tremendous opportunity”for Republicans to pass key policy priorities before the midterm elections, a House GOP tax-writer said Monday.

Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, said at a Bloomberg Government roundtable that Republicans want a second shot at passing several provisions that were axed from their first reconciliation bill passed last year.

“It was a heavy lift to do reconciliation 1.0,” Van Duyne said. “But I think there’s a lot of parts of that bill that got washed out in the Byrd bath that we would like to be able to see put in reconciliation 2.0.”

Those changes include regulatory reform Van Duyne said, along with changes to the Medicaid funding structure, called FMAP, which proved to be a major point of contention when Republicans were writing the tax and spending law last year. House conservatives sought a flat reduction in federal dollars for Medicaid expansion states among other changes, though the proposal faced heavy pushback from moderates.

Reconciliation rules, which allow bills to pass the Senate via a simple majority vote, require all provisions of the legislation to be budgetary in nature. A number of provisions, including changes to FMAP, were dropped from Republicans’ first reconciliation bill last year to abide by reconciliation rules.

“There’s a lot that got thrown out that we would like to have in, specifically on health care, the FMAP, I think is important,” Van Duyne said.

Van Duyne added Republicans want to tie several of their own bills to a possible second reconciliation package, adding she wants to include her legislation to require third-party audits of federal agencies that “more or less codifies the DOGE effort.”

Republican leaders including Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) along with President Donald Trump have been cool to the idea of starting work on a second party-line bill given how challenging it was to pass the first bill, though a number of rank-and-file GOP lawmakers have clamored for it.

“There’s a lot of very strong bills that would be productive to be able to have passed and the only way that we can do that is put it in reconciliation,” Van Duyne said.