Josh Hawley Reacts To Senate Parliamentarian Blocking Medicaid Cuts In Big Beautiful Bill

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill.

Transcript

00:00Okay. Hard to say because I'm sure they'll redraft it. So I just don't I

00:07think we just don't know right now. I mean this is a very fluid situation so

00:10it's not uncommon for the parliamentarian to say well you can't do that but you can

00:16do something very much like it if you just redraft. So I just think we don't know right now.

00:19You think that changes the time frame here? It could. I mean I don't know. That's a good point. The

00:25leader would know. I just don't know how quickly they can redraft and they'll have

00:28to go back in front of her. So this is the arcania part of the Senate procedure.

00:34Senator do you think that the parliamentarian should remain in her

00:38job? Should you guys try to overrule the parliamentarian? Oh I can't I just can't

00:42imagine that you'd get people to overrule her. I mean I just think you get the

00:46votes for that. So I just I just don't I mean I think Thune himself said he

00:50wouldn't vote for that. So I don't see that happening. Are you happy with this?

00:54With the provider? Well listen I think we should not do what the Senate wants to do

00:57with the provider tax. So I just talked to the president about this last night. His message was

01:01do what the House did. So I agree with that. That would be my if if the

01:06leadership wants to redraft my advice would be why don't you do with the House?

01:08So the president wants the House version? That's what he and I talked about last night.

01:11But you know we'll see what they do. It looks like this parliamentarian ruling

01:15though does overrule the freeze on the provider tax which was part of the House bill. The whole

01:19thing right? Yeah. So they're gonna have to redraft all of it. But this would be a

01:22chance to fix it. I mean this would be a chance for leadership to fix it and actually do

01:25something right here that's not gonna hurt rural hospitals. Some of the cuss on

01:29you know Medicare, Medicaid for non-citizens. The sort of stuff that fiscal

01:33conservative support. Do you understand the reasoning behind that? No. I don't. I mean I

01:38wasn't in the room. I haven't seen. This isn't a court. She doesn't issue a written

01:43ruling. So you know who knows. I don't know. That stuff. That's important stuff. So we

01:49want to see that. I mean illegal shouldn't be getting Medicaid. Folks who aren't

01:53working in who could be shouldn't be getting Medicaid. So we'll see. This goes back to your

01:57question Chad. I'm sure that they'll redraft and we'll see what we get to.

02:02What about the airstrikes question here with the briefing? I mean there was some suggestion

02:06by the administration because of leaks that they might limit information that they sent

02:10about these airstrikes. Is that a problem for the Congress not getting sufficient information

02:17if they intend to do that? Well I got to believe they'll be pretty forthcoming. I mean

02:21the briefers I think are the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense. I'd be surprised

02:26if they weren't forthcoming. I mean we'll see. Ask me afterwards. But I bet they'll be pretty

02:30forthcoming. What are they? I think they're very proud of us. I'm sure they'll be happy to

02:34share. They beat the administration. Happy to share what they achieved. So I'd be surprised.

02:38What's your top question? National Guard being involved in the attack on Florida. Yeah. Well,

02:42yeah, I had a white man. So obviously we're, I was just talking with some Missouri folks

02:47this morning about that. I'm very proud of them and the job that they did. So they were tremendous.

02:51What's your top question in this briefing? Oh, it'll depend on what they tell us. I mean,

02:55let's hear what they have to say first. All right. I got to go vote on my judges in here.

02:58Bunch of Missouri judges. Thank you.