House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said on Monday that Republicans are eyeing early 2027 as the target date for the new Medicaid work requirements in the large budget package intended to advance and solidify President Trump’s agenda.
The timeline for the bill’s new work requirements remains up in the air, as Republican leadership continues to negotiate with warring factions of the conference over details of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act which would extend Trump’s tax cuts and boost his border funding priorities while reforming Medicaid and food assistance programs.
The initial version of the legislation included work requirements that would take effect in 2029, but many conservatives argued that was not soon enough.
Scalise confirmed in an interview Monday that the revised version of the bill will likely see an earlier effective date.
“We’re coming to a much earlier date, early 2027, that we’re going to put in the bill in the Rules Committee this week,” Scalise said in an interview Monday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” referring to the timing of Medicaid work requirements.
Scalise said the reason for the initial delay is the time it takes to implement changes, which would be the responsibility of Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Mehmet Oz. Scalise said he worked with Oz to discuss the timing.
“So you’re going to see a much earlier date, giving Dr. Oz the time he needs to implement the changes, but moving that date up dramatically,” he said.
On whether he has concerns that moving up the timeline could risk losing moderate Republicans’ support of the bill, Scalise noted that all members have had the chance to review the bill extensively and ask questions at a briefing last week. He said they will go over all the details again.
“We are talking to all of those members. We’ve talked to some of them during the weekend,” Scalise said about moderate Republicans.
“Everybody knew this was something that we were working on,” he added, about the timeline of work requirements. “We’re going to go through those details again this week before we bring it to the floor.”
After Scalise’s comments on Monday, House Republican leadership staff said in a briefing on ongoing negotiations that a new start date for the work requirements had not yet been decided.
The bill advanced out of the House Budget Committee in a rare, late-night vote on Sunday, with four Republican deficit hawks voting “present” to let the bill advance. The GOP holdouts voted to tank the bill with Democrats on Friday night.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), one of those holdouts, suggested progress had been made to move up the start date for new Medicaid work requirements and to speed up the phaseout of green energy incentives.
The bill now heads to the House Rules Committee, which is set to take up the legislation later this week and make last-minute changes to the bill to reflect any compromises and demands between deficit hawks and moderates in high-tax states.
