AMNA NAWAZ: Well, President Trump met with Republican members today to help get the budget bill over the finish line.

Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska supports the bill, and he joins me now.

Congressman, welcome back to the "News Hour."

Thanks for joining us.

REP. MIKE FLOOD (R-NE): Yes, thank you very much for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: So let me just get your quick reaction to Lisa's reporting there.

You see this bill moving across the finish line tonight?

REP. MIKE FLOOD: I do.

I think the Republican Conference has been far united -- far more united this Congress than we were last Congress.

We always get through this.

We have been through this.

We have seen it before.

I was at the White House today with the president.

He was upbeat.

He was focused.

This is bigger than just reconciliation.

This is making good on the promises that President Trump made when he wanted to run for president, the same platform that many of us ran on across the United States.

This delivers on those promises.

It cuts taxes.

It increases border security, energy independence, and, most notably, it does cut spending in a big way for the first time in American history.

AMNA NAWAZ: But, Congressman, can I ask you about the timing, though?

Why the rush?

I mean, I know other than the president wanting this July 4 deadline, in your conversations with them today when you're at the White House, was there any talk about delaying it so you have time to work with your colleagues who have real concerns and work through those?

Why July 4?

REP. MIKE FLOOD: Well, the reality is, the House of Representatives, we have been working on this for a year-and-a-half, for 18 months.

When President Trump was sworn in, we had already been at this for the better part of a year.

Speaker Johnson, Speaker McCarthy, they had set up task forces.

By and large, 85 to 90 percent of this bill is exactly what was passed in the House.

The Senate obviously had the better part of a month to deal with it.

We are now reconciling some of their changes.

Lisa Murkowski, she did a great job.

She helped rural America.

She upped that rural hospital fund from $25 billion to $50 billion.

As someone representing the state of Nebraska, that goes a long way in rural communities that need access to quality emergency health care.

AMNA NAWAZ: Sure, but, if I may, you still have disagreement in the House.

So all that time leading up to it, why the July 4 deadline?

REP. MIKE FLOOD: Well, have you ever tried to get 222 of your friends to agree on anything?

AMNA NAWAZ: I have not, admittedly.

REP. MIKE FLOOD: This is the way that the place is designed.

It's designed to do this.

It's designed to let everybody come forward.

Listen, I had a lot of issues with the bill in the House before we ever passed it.

And I spent hours at the negotiating table working on issues like SALT, working on issues like Medicaid, security, injunctions, things like that.

We have been at the table.

This is the process.

And this is not going to age well.

Americans need certainty.

Americans need to know, are their taxes going to up?

Are we going to have a federal estate tax exemption or not?

Is it going to get cut in half?

These are the questions that we're getting asked by the Chamber of Commerce, by Main Street, by moms and dads trying to raise their children, wondering, where's the child tax credit going to go?

This provides answers.

And I'm confident we will get it done tonight.

And the president will sign this at the White House on July 4.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let me ask you, if I may, about the impact on people in Nebraska, because you mentioned that rural fund for hospitals, the $50 billion or so that were added on after Lisa Murkowski's concerns.

The head of your Nebraska Hospital Association said, even with that fund, hospitals will have to cut services, a hospital in Northeast Nebraska, for example, she said having to close its labor and delivery unit.

Her point is that, with the number of people on Medicaid, with the income Medicaid provides, hospitals are getting 40 cents on every dollar from Medicaid, and that that funding loss has to be made up, likely passed on to people who are already paying for private insurance.

So what do you say to folks in Nebraska about that?

REP. MIKE FLOOD: Well, I think some of the things we need to know about Nebraska is, they just set up a provider tax system where Nebraska in the coming year is going to see a $1 billion increase in funds from the federal government.

We have the state-directed payment system.

We have a legislature that has kept up on Medicaid rates.

Is it perfect?

No, but in talking to the Hospital Association, I will tell you that they know they can live with this.

It isn't perfect, right?

When both sides are... AMNA NAWAZ: All due respect, Congressman, this is someone who yesterday said that they will have to make cuts to services based on the bill.

REP. MIKE FLOOD: Well, I talked to Jeremy Nordquist, who runs the Nebraska Hospital Association, by text today, and he has assured me that they can make this work.

They have got another $1 billion coming into all the hospitals in my home state.

That's a lot of money for a state with two million people.

Now, will there have to be decisions made about how to properly use that money?

Do we have to make sure that we don't have waste, fraud and abuse?

Yes.

But we're talking about a system that is not getting shuttered.

It is getting an increase.

And, sure, somebody in one part of my state can say they have challenges.

And I don't doubt that.

But there's a lot of different reasons that those challenges come forward.

And we have to also look at the fact that we're spending trillions of dollars in health care.

There is not an unlimited supply of money.

This is going to work out.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let me ask you, if I may, while I have you about your fellow Nebraska, and that's Congressman Don Bacon, who announced his retirement ahead of this vote.

As you know, he has been a vocal critic of the president and your party on certain issues from time to time.

And earlier this year, he talked about how it is increasingly difficult to disagree not with Democrats, but with members of his own party.

He was even primaried by someone who was backed by Trump loyalists in your states.

Do you, Congressman, do you worry that there's no room in your party to disagree with the president anymore?

REP. MIKE FLOOD: You have never been to a Republican Conference behind closed doors, where this happens for the better part of an hour at least once or twice a week.

Listen, the Republican Party is an extremely big tent.

There are all sorts of different factions.

I am the vice chairman of the Main Street Caucus.

Don Bacon used to be the chairman of the Main Street Caucus.

We deal with people having disagreements every day.

I served for six years as the speaker of the nation's only nonpartisan unicameral.

I'm used to having different opinions in the rooms.

I was at the White House today where several members of my own party were pushing the president on different issues and we talked it through.

Dr. Oz was there.

He explained where we're going on Medicaid.

So I choose not to do it in front of the cameras.

I choose to do it in a room where I can actually solve a problem and deliver a result.

Now, Don Bacon has been an excellent representative for the people of Nebraska.

He's uniquely tailored and perfect for the district that he's in.

He has served 30 years in the Air Force, 10 years in the House.

The guy's got like eight or nine grandchildren.

I think he's on his way to a wonderful second career after this, and I can't say enough good about him.

AMNA NAWAZ: Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska, we always enjoy having you on the show.

Thank you so much for your time.

REP. MIKE FLOOD: Thank you for having me.

AMNA NAWAZ: And a quick note.

We will have a conversation with Congressman Ralph Norman, who's actually opposing the president's bill at this moment, in a moment after the news summary.