Fiscal hawk Republicans are increasing their demands for the budget megabill to House leadership as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) faces the tumultuous battle to find a balance between centrist GOP lawmakers worried about beneficiary programs and right-flank conservatives expecting steep spending cuts.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), policy chairman for the Freedom Caucus and voice box for the fiscal hawk bloc, sent a letter to Johnson on Wednesday with five demands for reconciliation, mostly centered on immigration and border security. 

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In another letter, Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) and 31 Republicans wrote to Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) emphasizing steep spending cuts — otherwise, they said, the Ways and Means Committee must spend less on the tax cuts if targets for slashing spending are not met.

As Republicans work through the reconciliation process to codify President Donald Trump’s agenda in one bill, leadership has been more narrowly focused on tax cuts and reforms to Medicaid, rather than the border and defense aspects that will be shoved into the bill. Centrist lawmakers are vocal about changes that would affect their purple districts, while fiscal hawks are demanding Republicans root out “waste, fraud, and abuse.” 

The letters come after Johnson and key centrist Republican holdouts met on Tuesday evening, with several Medicaid-focused GOP lawmakers stating they were closer to a “yes” on the legislation after leadership said they would not be cutting the federal cost share for states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, or FMAPs, and capping federal payments to said expansion states.

But fiscal hawks are concerned that, without that plan, Republicans will be unable to reach the proposed $1.5 trillion in cuts on which they say their support depends.

Roy said in his letter, obtained by the Washington Examiner, that many priorities were included in the House Judiciary Committee’s portion of the reconciliation bill, but he listed five that he says should be “imperative” to include in the final product.

The priorities listed by Roy are: eliminate illegal immigrants’ eligibility to challenge immigration court orders, ensure new immigrations’ judges and staff are not on the federal payroll forever, fine sanctuary jurisdictions obstructing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, establish an “Election Integrity Office” at the Justice Department, and reimburse Texas and other states for performing border security duties that they believe should have been handled by the federal government under former President Joe Biden.

Roy has been vocal that he wants to see severe changes to Medicaid if Republicans want to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The renewal has been a point of contention between Senate and House Republicans, as the former believes extending the act would have no effect on the deficit, therefore blunting the need to find trillions in cuts elsewhere to pay for it.

But Smucker and his 31 fellow Republicans said in their letter that to fully extend the 2017 tax cuts, the reconciliation bill must have at least “$2 trillion in verifiable savings” to earn their support for the legislation, either through spending reductions or scaling back the tax cuts.

“If savings fall short, the Ways and Means Committee’s instruction must be lowered dollar-for-dollar to keep the reconciliation bill within the agreed limits,” the Republicans wrote, noting that the committee’s instruction may not exceed $2.5 trillion more than the debt reduction achieved by all of the other committees combined.

“A $2 trillion reduction in spending may sound substantial,” they added. “However, it equals only 2.3 percent of projected federal outlays over the next decade and only reduces the rate of growth in spending. Even with those savings, annual spending is expected to grow from $7 trillion to $10 trillion over the next 10 years, and debt will exceed $50 trillion by 2035.”

Many of the signatories joining Smucker’s letter include Freedom Caucus members. The caucus said at the time of passage of the budget blueprint that anything that falls short of the agreement “would face serious problems in the House.”

“The House reconciliation instructions are binding,” Smucker and his GOP colleagues wrote. “They set a floor for savings, not a ceiling. We must hold that line on fiscal discipline to put the country back on a sustainable path.”

THE FOUR FACTIONS SPEAKER JOHNSON MUST PLEASE TO PASS TRUMP’S BUDGET MEGABILL

Johnson can only afford to lose three votes on any given legislation and still pass it along party lines, with that number fluctuating depending on Democratic absences. If it passes the House, it is no guarantee that Senate Republicans will approve of the level of spending cuts, and it will likely result in a cross-chamber battle once again.

However, Punchbowl News reported that Senate GOP leaders said at their retreat on Wednesday that the House isn’t being aggressive enough on spending cuts, urging their House counterparts to still consider FMAP reductions to find savings in Medicaid.