Negotiations between conservative holdouts and President Donald Trump over the GOP healthcare bill were fruitless, and the legislation will not pass, House Freedom Caucus chairman Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said.
Any hopes of passing the Obamacare repeal plan are "over," Meadows said Monday, according to The Hill.
Meadows met with White House officials over the weekend at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
"We've communicated very clearly what we'd like to see and have done," Meadows said. "We've spent hours and hours and hours investing in trying to make this a better bill, and at this point it's very clear that negotiations are over," Meadows said to reporters.
House GOP leaders have made changes set to be released Monday night, but Meadows said they are not enough. Freedom Caucus members want a complete repeal of Obamacare in the first bill, something leadership says will not be able to get enough moderate and Democratic votes.
"There are some small tweaks that are good tweaks, but there's not substantial changes in the manager's amendment that would make anybody be more compelled to vote for this," Meadows said. "I don't think that the bill will pass without substantial changes."
The conservative caucus has 40 members, and Republicans can afford to lose only 21 votes from their own party in the House.
The vote is scheduled for Thursday.
A White House meeting Monday with skeptical Republicans in the House and Senate did not go well either, CNN reported.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, called the meeting "terribly frustrating." Efforts from conservatives to get more changes were met with a message from the White House there will be no more revisions, an aide to Lee told CNN.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.