LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Republicans in Congress return to Washington this week after a two-week recess.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Ready to make good on President Trump's promise to pass a big bill full of his top policy priorities. In the House, they say the goal is to write these plans, covering everything from taxes and immigration to spending cuts, and pass it by Memorial Day, which is less than a month from now.
FADEL: NPR's Elena Moore is following this, and she joins me now in studio. Hi, Elena.
ELENA MOORE, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: Good morning. So Republicans have been talking about their plans to pass President Trump's agenda for some time now. Just remind us of where they are in this process.
MOORE: Yeah. Well, a few weeks ago, the House and the Senate approved a budget framework for this big spending bill. Now House Republicans say they're focused on drafting and agreeing to all the pieces of the legislation, based on that framework. Here's how Republican Congressman and Majority Leader Steve Scalise put it to reporters on Tuesday.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STEVE SCALISE: All of our committees have been meeting, both individually - we've been meeting with the president for about a year to get to this moment and start delivering on those things that we all ran on.
MOORE: Yeah, and House committees are planning to release and work through their proposals for the spending bill over the next few weeks. After that, the House Budget Committee will work to put it all together so the whole House can vote. And we should say, Leila, this is entirely a partisan process. And Democrats, who don't have the power to stop this, are unanimously opposed.
FADEL: OK. Elena, Memorial Day is about a month away.
MOORE: Yeah.
FADEL: Does it seem like they will actually be able to meet this goal?
MOORE: Well, Republicans want to pass a lot of policy. But some of it is divisive, even among Republicans. And that's just a difficult task, given their razor-thin majority. So they need to keep different factions of their conference happy. Plus, House committees have been directed to propose at least $1.5 trillion in cuts. In the Senate, they're supposed to slash just $4 billion in cuts, but they've promised to cut more.
FADEL: OK, so they're working with different numbers. But what about policy? What are the biggest divisions right now?
MOORE: Well, one is over the future of Medicaid, the government insurance program available for low-income Americans and folks with disabilities. It falls under the House Energy and Commerce Committee's control, and the committee is looking to propose $880 billion in cuts. And Democrats point to a recent analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office to conclude that cuts to Medicaid would have to happen in order to get to that number. Still, you know, some Republicans have come out strongly against this, both in the House and in the Senate. You know, it's something Missouri Senator Josh Hawley told me he's not going to compromise on, given just how many people in his state rely on both Medicaid and the related Children's Health Insurance Program.
JOSH HAWLEY: Some people, I think, would like to cut Medicaid. That's a goal. They view that as a feature, not a bug. I view it as a bug. I mean, I'm not going to vote for Medicaid cuts - not with 21% of my state, including a lot of kids, who are getting Medicaid or CHIP.
FADEL: What else are they considering?
MOORE: Well, some committees have started to spell out what they would already cut. Just this week, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce released their spending proposal, which includes scrapping some current student loan repayment plans and capping how much Americans can borrow from the government. So we'll be watching how lawmakers negotiate these cuts over the next few weeks.
FADEL: That's NPR's Elena Moore. Thank you, Elena.
MOORE: Thanks. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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