WASHINGTON — Members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus are facing tough questions following the passage of President Donald Trump’s signature tax and spending bill. Several caucus members, including some from Texas, had vowed to oppose the legislation, complaining that it would add trillions of dollars to the federal deficit. But in the end, the holdouts all voted for it, allowing the measure to pass. Even some fellow members of the GOP are wondering whether the caucus’ influence is fading.
The hardline House Freedom Caucus is used to taking heat from Democrats.
“The Freedom Caucus definitely loses credibility. I mean, they just rolled over. They completely rolled over,” said U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth. “In this town, if you’re not going to stand up for yourself and stand up for your beliefs and your principles, then people aren’t going to take you seriously.”
But now, fellow Republicans are calling them out too.
“They called their own bluff,” U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wisconsin, said. “I’ve been in Congress for two years and five seconds, and they pulled the same stunt 19 times. So they’re over. The influence of the Freedom Caucus is over.”
After the Senate made changes to President Trump’s massive policy bill, caucus members held the bill up, demanding additional spending cuts to reduce its impact on the national debt. But members ultimately shifted from no to yes, at the request of the president, and allowed the bill to squeak through.
The House’s passage gave the president his biggest legislative win of his second term and the bill signing he wanted on the Fourth of July.
The saga underscored Trump’s power over Republicans in Congress and raised questions about the credibility of the Freedom Caucus, which as a group says it is for fiscal discipline.
The Freedom Caucus’s chairman, U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Maryland, insists members did not cave, claiming the group wrangled concessions from the White House and the House speaker.
“When I look at the totality of this package, this pretty darn good package, and I’m glad it passed,” Harris told reporters on Capitol Hill.
U.S. Rep. Keith Self, R-McKinney, earlier called the bill “morally and fiscally” bankrupt, but on social media after its passage, said, “While the bill is not perfect, there are significant conservative wins the House Freedom Caucus has achieved.”
Self’s social media post went to say, “HFC moved the bill dramatically to the right on almost every front and at every stage of the process, including overnight, as a small group of us continued working with the White House to address critical policy and spending issues.”
U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, the group’s policy chair and one of its most vocal members, voted against advancing the Senate version in committee but he said while the bill is not perfect, it has “winning issues.”
“Sometimes you have to take a step back and say, ‘Look, we’re going to take the wins, right?’” Roy said.
“Earlier in this process, they said you’re not going to get more than about $300 billion. We got 1.6 trillion. They said you’re not going to get anything on Medicaid. We got a trillion dollars on Medicaid, work requirements, serious reforms, provider tax changes,” Roy continued.
Though the Freedom Caucus was not able to directly get additional changes to the bill, Harris said there were agreements made with the Trump administration that addressed deficit concerns. Members said this could come in the form of another tax and spending package, or that the president would issue more executive actions, but declined to provide further details.
“If you want to know, ask the president,” Harris said.