After voting for Medicaid cuts earlier this month as part of the recently passed budget reconciliation bill, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) on Tuesday introduced legislation to repeal changes that took funding from state plans.

President Trump signed H.R. 1 into law on July 4 after a contentious vote in Congress.

Although it’s not unusual for lawmakers to introduce stand-alone bills outside of big spending packages, HuffPost.com noted that “it’s rare to see a member of Congress trying to undo something they voted for, especially if they had the power to change it before it squeaked by in a 50-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie in its favor.”

The article noted that rural hospitals would bear the brunt of cuts to Medicaid, most of which are scheduled to begin in 2028.

“I want to see Medicaid reductions stopped and rural hospitals fully funded permanently,” Hawley said Tuesday in a press release. “President Trump has always said we have to protect Medicaid for working people. Now is the time to prevent any future cuts to Medicaid from going into effect.”

The Congressional Budget Office found last month that reductions in federal Medicaid spending to state programs would cause states’ spending to increase by $201.3 billion. Additionally, according to the CBO, Medicaid changes also could lead to 2 million Americans losing healthcare coverage by 2034.

“The ‘big, beautiful bill’ cuts about $1 trillion from Medicaid, mostly through strict work requirements and reductions to how states can fund their Medicaid programs via provider taxes and state-directed payments,” The Hill reported, referring to Republicans’ name for the bill when it was introduced. The legislative text no longer contains the name One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

Hawley’s proposal, dubbed the Protect Medicaid and Rural Hospitals Act, would double support for rural hospitals to $100 million as outlined in H.R. 1 and extend the Rural Health Transformation Fund’s life span from five years to 10 years.

“Republican leaders had agreed to include the $50 billion to assuage concerns from Mr. Hawley and other Republicans that the Medicaid cuts would shutter some remote hospital,” the New York Times reported.

The bill also would:

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has denied that Medicaid cuts exist under the budget reconciliation bill. 

“There’s a diminishment of the growth rate of Medicaid, which is bankrupting our country,” Kennedy told Fox Business Network’s Larry Kudlow on his show, The Hill reported.