Nebraska Republican interrogated over GOP megabill during tense town hall

Yahoo

6 days ago

Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) was interrogated over the GOP's 'big, beautiful bill' during a town hall this week, with voters pressing him on provisions of the bill — including changes to Medicaid — in an hour-plus event that turned tense at times.
The megabill, which passed the House last week, took center stage from the start of the event. Flood, who represents Nebraska's 1st Congressional District, mentioned the bill in his opening remarks, and the first series of questions from constituents focused on the sprawling piece of legislation.
'I will tell you, a lot of you as I talked to you on the way in had concerns with the bill that we passed in reconciliation on Thursday morning. I voted for that bill,' Flood said, prompting loud boos and screams from the crowd.
In one of the viral moments, a voter in the audience asked Flood about a provision in the bill that aims to restrict federal judges' ability to hold government officials in contempt when they violate a court order.
When a judge grants a preliminary injunction — as judges have done in dozens of cases to block Trump administration policies — federal procedure normally requires the plaintiff to post a bond. But judges often waive the requirement when the case concerns an unconstitutional policy. The bill would prevent judges from enforcing contempt orders if they issue such a waiver.
The language, which is a small paragraph in the 1,000-plus-page bill, was slipped in and went largely unnoticed. Asked why he voted in favor of the bill with that provision, Flood — who graduated from University of Nebraska's law school — said the language was 'unknown' to him when he voted for the bill, noting he is not in favor of it.
'I do not agree with that section that was added to that bill,' Floor said, prompting a cry of 'you voted for all of it' from the audience.
'Why? I will tell you this: I believe in the rule of law,' he continued. 'I've taken an oath as an attorney, I've taken an oath as a state senator, I've taken an oath as a member of Congress, and I support our court system and I do believe that the federal district courts when issuing an injunction, it should have legal effect. In fact, I relied upon that when the Biden administration was in place, the federal courts did a tremendous amount of good work.'
'This provision was unknown to me when I voted for the bill,' he added.
When a moderator began moving to the next question, Flood continued to speak to the matter.
'I am not going to hide the truth: This provision was unknown to me when I voted for that bill,' he said, leading the audience to break out in shouts. 'And when I found out that provision was in the bill, I immediately reached out to my Senate counterparts and told them of my concern. And when I return to Washington, I am going to very clearly tell the people in my conference that we cannot support undermining our court system, and we must allow our federal courts to operate and issue injunctions.'
The congressman continued, later saying he cannot 'pull the fire alarm' every time he is frustrated with something from the administration. He did, however, take a jab at the White House after deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said Trump and his team are 'actively looking at' suspending habeas corpus as the administration looks to crack down on illegal immigration.
'Please know that every time someone in the administration comes up with an idea, I can't pull the fire alarm every day, but if I see a writ of habeas corpus, quote-unquote, suspended, that is not right,' Flood said. 'It can only be done by Congress in terms of an invasion, and that is not the situation we have.'
It was a familiar scene for Flood, who faced an onslaught of incisive questions and complaints over Elon Musk, the Russia-Ukraine war and more during a town hall in March. The congressman held the event despite House Republican leaders at the time urging lawmakers to host call-in and livestream town halls instead of in-person gatherings after moments from various GOP town halls went viral for questions about the administration and rowdy protests. Republicans had blamed the protests on Democratic activists.
On Tuesday, at the beginning of the town hall, Flood said he believed all in attendance were his constituents.
'We have a good group of people here from all sorts of different places, all Nebraskans. I don't think one of you is here because you're getting paid, I don't think one of you is here because you were trucked in,' Flood said. 'I shook every hand in the front of this assembly, and I recognized a lot of faces, and I recognized a lot of names from my daily call logs.'
Flood was asked about the 'big, beautiful bill' throughout the town hall. Later in the event, an attendee asked, 'How do you justify extending the 2017 temporary tax cuts and offsetting that federal loss by cutting Medicaid and SNAP benefits — tax cuts [that are] expected to add $5 trillion to [the] deficit?' One of the most controversial parts of the GOP megabill was changes to Medicaid, including beefed-up work requirements that will take effect in December 2026.
Flood defended the bill, arguing that Medicaid should be protected for vulnerable populations. At one point during those comments, the crowd broke out in 'tax the rich' chants.
Later in the town hall, Flood said: 'I think when you look at the Medicaid changes that we made, we did a very good job to avoid making Medicaid changes that affect patient care.'
Zach Schonfeld contributed.
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