CHARLESTON– With a vote to proceed toward consideration of President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” as soon as Friday, the committee chaired by U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito released updated legislative text after the Senate parliamentarian objected to earlier provisions.

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on Senate Republicans to ease up on proposed changes in the bill that could see people lose Medicaid coverage, access to food, and harm rural hospitals.

Capito, chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, released the committee’s updated legislative text Wednesday morning. The EPW text focuses on gutting provisions in the 2023 Inflation Reduction Act and clawing back some of those funds to help pay for the continuation of the 2017 tax cuts.

“Our budget reconciliation title through the EPW Committee accomplishes what we pledged to do — stop Democrats’ natural gas tax and rescind unobligated dollars from the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, as well as a full repeal of the wasteful Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund,” said Capito, R-W.Va. “Senate Republicans continue to move toward passage of this package that will help enact President Trump’s agenda.”

The committee’s proposal seeks to rescind unobligated funding from various IRA sections that supported programs for clean heavy-duty vehicles, greenhouse gas reduction, diesel emissions reductions, air pollution initiatives, and environmental data collection.

The committee’s legislative text also details plans to pause the IRA’s methane tax for 10 years, allocate funding for construction and maintenance of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C., and introduce an opt-in fee program under the National Environmental Policy Act to expedite environmental reviews.

The proposed budget bill, which passed the U.S. House of Representatives on May 23 in a 215-214-1 vote, is being done through the reconciliation process, which avoids the 60 votes needed in the Senate to avoid a filibuster, allowing the bill to be passed by a simple 51-vote majority in the 100-member Senate.

But by using the reconciliation process, it requires the Senate parliamentarian to review each committee’s proposal to remove items unrelated to the federal budget. This process is sometimes called the “Byrd Bath,” named for the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia.

Last week, the Senate parliamentarian said several provisions in the original legislative text released by the EPW Committee violated the Byrd Bath rule. One rejected provision would have allowed certain infrastructure projects receiving an expedited National Environmental Policy Act review to be exempt from judicial review for a set fee. Another provision would have completely stripped the Biden-era tailpipe emissions rule.

However, the updated EPA legislative text now only rescinds funds appropriated through the IRA for enforcement of the tailpipe emissions rule while leaving the rule itself in place. It also removed the judicial review provision to which the parliamentarian objected.

Lawmakers have set a self-imposed deadline of July 4 to pass the act. But pressure is mounting on senators to update the bill to ease proposed changes to Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and other social safety net programs.

Representatives from the West Virginia Hospital Association were on Capitol Hill Tuesday meeting with West Virginia’s congressional delegation to raise concerns about cuts to Medicaid that could harm the rural hospital system in the state.

“Our hospitals serve as the backbone of health care delivery in communities across West Virginia, and Medicaid funding is absolutely critical to maintaining access to care for our most vulnerable residents,” said WVHA President and CEO Jim Kaufman.

“These CEOs took time away from their demanding responsibilities to personally advocate for their patients and communities because the stakes are simply too high to leave this to chance.”