Energised Republicans are set to begin dismantling eight years of achievements by Barack Obama as they take complete control of Washington and bring out the wrecking balls. 
 
 The 115th Congress will sit for the first time on Tuesday, and even before President-elect Donald Trump assumes office, Republicans on Capitol Hill are anxious to start work. Their priorities include repealing the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, a tax overhaul, the repeal of environmental regulations, a large transportation bill to create jobs, and the confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice. 
 
 “Buckle up,” Vice President-elect Mike Pence told his former colleagues in the House last year, after meeting with them to discuss legislative plans. 
 
 Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell do not agree on everything (AP) 
 
 “I’m very confident that as we move towards inauguration, bring together a great team, work in concert with leaders in the House and Senate, and we’re going to move an agenda that’s going to rebuild our military, revive our economy, and — in a word — make America great again.” 
 
 Indeed, with the Republicans controlling both the executive and legislative branches of government, work is likely to begin shortly after the Congress’s 59 new members — seven senators and fifty-two House members — are sworn in. 
 
 CNN said that the Republicans will want to begin dismantling Obamacare, which they have identified as a priority since it was passed into law in 2010. 
 
 Happy new year! 2017 is going to be a big year for our nation. — Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) January 1, 2017 
 
 They also plan a major tax overhaul and the the reversal of a number of Obama-era environmental regulations. 
 
 “It’s a big job to actually have responsibility and produce results,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, told The New York Times. “And we intend to do it.” 
 
 “I hear probably more about the strangulation of regulations on business and their growth and their development than probably anything else,” the House speaker, Paul Ryan, said recently, “I think if we can provide regulatory relief right away, that can breathe a sigh of relief into the economy.” 
 
 Trump's advisor suggests Obama's sanctions against Russia are to 'box in' the incoming President 
 
 At the same time, such legislative efforts will have to share time with Senate confirmation hearings for Mr Trump’s cabinet picks in the days and months that follow the President-elect’s swearing-in. 
 
 It should be easier for Republicans to move nominations after the Democrats changed the Senate's filibuster rules in 2013. Still, Democrats have pledged to fight many of the nominations, highlighting what they call the hypocrisy of Mr Trump’s populist message. 
 
 In truth, the Democrats, weakened in all areas of government since last November’s election, have little ammunition with which to fire back. 
 
 But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will likely try and stop changes to welfare programmes such as Medicare and Medicaid. 
 
 Mr Obama is himself scheduled to visit congressional Democrats on Wednesday to discuss ways to try and save his signature legislation. 
 
 There is much that remains unclear. And there are a number of issues on which Republicans on Capitol Hill are at odds with Mr Trump. They do not agree on his wish to scrap trade deals such as Nafta, and they also do not see eye to eye with him over controversies such as the alleged Russian cyber-meddling in the election. 
 
 While Mr Trump has said he thinks the country needs to move on to “more important” issues, Republican senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain have called for hearings on the issue and proposed sanctions beyond those announced by Mr Obama last week. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — In a gamble with monumental political stakes, Republicans set course for a climactic House vote on their health care overhaul after President Donald Trump claimed he was finished negotiating with GOP holdouts and determined to pursue the rest of his agenda, win or lose. 
 
 House Speaker Paul Ryan set the showdown for Friday, following a nighttime Capitol meeting at which top White House officials told GOP lawmakers that Trump had decided the time for talk was over. 
 
 "We have been promising the American people that we will repeal and replace this broken law because it's collapsing and it's failing families. And tomorrow we're proceeding," Ryan tersely told reporters after scheduling what loomed as the most momentous vote to date for Trump and for the Wisconsin Republican's own speakership. 
 
 In an embarrassing and stinging setback hours earlier, leaders abruptly postponed the vote because a rebellion by conservatives and moderates would have doomed the measure. They'd hoped for a roll call Thursday, which marked the seventh anniversary of President Barack Obama's enactment of his landmark health care statute that Republicans have vowed ever since to annul. 
 
 There was no evidence that leaders had nailed down sufficient support to prevail, nor that their decision to charge ahead was a feint and that they'd delay again if necessary. But they seemed to be calculating that at crunch time, enough dissidents would decide against sabotaging the bill, Trump's young presidency and the House GOP leadership's ability to set the agenda, with a single, crushing defeat. 
 
 "The president has said he wants the vote tomorrow," White House budget chief Mick Mulvaney told the lawmakers, according to Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., a Trump ally. "If for any reason it goes down, we're just going to move forward with additional parts of his agenda. This is our moment in time." 
 
 Even if they prevail, Republicans face an uphill climb in the Senate, where conservatives and moderates are also threatening to sink it. 
 
 The GOP bill eliminates the Obama statute's unpopular fines on those who do not obtain coverage and the often generous subsidies for those who purchase insurance. 
 
 Instead, consumers would face a 30 percent premium penalty if they let coverage lapse. Republican tax credits would be based on age, not income. The bill would also end Obama's Medicaid expansion and trim future federal financing for the federal-state program and let states impose work requirements on some of its 70 million beneficiaries. 
 
 In a bid to coax support from conservatives, House leaders proposed a fresh amendment — to be voted on Friday — repealing Obama's requirement that insurers cover 10 specified services like maternity and mental health care. Conservatives have demanded the removal of those and other conditions the law imposes on insurers, arguing they drive premiums skyward. 
 
 Many moderates are opposed because they say the GOP bill would leave many voters uninsured. Medical associations, consumer groups and hospitals are opposed or voicing misgivings, and some Republican governors say the bill cuts Medicaid too deeply and would leave many low-income people uncovered. 
 
 Republicans can lose only 22 votes in the face of united Democratic opposition. A tally by The Associated Press found at least 32 "no" votes, but the figure was subject to fluctuation amid frantic GOP lobbying. 
 
 Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., head of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, said he remained a "no" but didn't answer when asked whether the group still had enough votes to kill the legislation. He'd long said caucus opposition alone would defeat it without changes. 
 
 One member of that group, Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., responded indirectly when asked if his opposition had changed. 
 
 "Everybody asked us to take a moment and reflect. Well, we'll reflect," he said. 
 
 Other foes said they'd not flipped. These included moderate Reps. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Dan Donovan of New York and Leonard Lance of New Jersey, plus conservative Walter Jones of North Carolina, who had his own words of warning. 
 
 "He's there for three-and-a-half more years," Jones said of Trump. "He better be careful. He's got a lot of issues coming." 
 
 The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said changes Republican leaders had proposed before Thursday to win votes had cut the legislation's deficit reduction by more than half, to $150 billion over the next decade. But it would still result in 24 million more uninsured people in a decade. 
 
 Obama's law increased coverage through subsidized private insurance for people who don't have access to workplace plans, and a state option to expand Medicaid for low-income residents. More than 20 million people gained coverage since the law was passed in 2010. 
 
 Many who purchase individual health insurance and make too much to qualify for the law's tax credits have seen their premiums jump and their choices diminished. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writers Matt Daly, Kevin Freking, Mary Clare Jalonick, Richard Lardner, Stephen Ohlemacher, Vivian Salama, Ken Thomas and Erica Werner contributed to this report. ||||| WASHINGTON — On Tuesday at noon, with plenty of pomp and pageantry, members of the 115th Congress will be sworn in, with an emboldened GOP intent on unraveling eight years of President Obama’s Democratic agenda and targeting massive legacy programs from Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson such as Social Security and Medicare. 
 
 In the election, Republicans kept their tight grip on the House and outmaneuvered the Democrats for a slim majority in the Senate. In less than three weeks, on the West Front of the Capitol, Chief Justice John Roberts will administer the presidential oath to Donald Trump, the GOP’s newfound ally. 
 
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 First up for Republicans is repeal and delay of the health care law, expediting the process for scrapping Obama’s major overhaul but holding off on some changes for up to four years. The tax code is in the cross-hairs. Conservatives want to scuttle rules on the environment and undo financial regulations created in the aftermath of the 2008 economic meltdown, arguing they are too onerous for businesses to thrive. 
 
 The only obstacle to the far-reaching conservative agenda will be Senate Democrats who hold the power to filibuster legislation, but even that has its political limitations. Twenty-three Democrats are up for re-election in 2018, including 10 from states Trump won, and they could break ranks and side with the GOP. 
 
 Get Political Happy Hour in your inbox: Your afternoon shot of politics, sent straight from the desk of Joshua Miller. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here 
 
 Here are a few things to know about Congress: 
 
 By the numbers 
 
 Vice President Joe Biden, in one of his final official acts, will administer the oath to 27 returning senators and seven new ones. Republicans will have a 52-48 advantage in the Senate, which remains predominantly a bastion of white men. 
 
 There will be 21 women, of whom 16 are Democrats and five, Republicans; three African Americans, including California’s new Democratic senator Kamala Harris, and four Hispanics, including Nevada’s new Democratic senator Catherine Cortez Masto. 
 
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 Across the Capitol, the House is expected to re-elect Representative Paul Ryan as Speaker, with all the campaign-season recriminations involving the Wisconsin Republican and Trump largely erased by GOP wins. Once sworn in, Ryan will then administer the oath to the House members. 
 
 The GOP will hold a hefty 241-194 majority in the House, including 52 freshmen — 27 Republicans, including Wyoming’s Liz Cheney, daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, and 25 Democrats. 
 
 Confirming the Cabinet 
 
 The Senate will exercise its advice and consent role and consider nominations of 15 department secretaries and six people tapped by Trump to lead agencies or serve in roles with Cabinet-level status, such as the EPA and UN ambassador. 
 
 Democrats won’t make it easy. 
 
 Several in the party have been highly critical of several of Trump’s choices, from Rick Perry, who forgot during the 2012 presidential campaign that the Energy Department was the one he wanted to eliminate, to Treasury pick Steve Mnuchin, the former Goldman Sachs executive whom Democrats have dubbed the ‘‘foreclosure king’’ for his stake in OneWest Bank that profited from the foreclosure crisis. 
 
 Others nominees, such as retired Marine General James Mattis for defense secretary, should easily win confirmation. First, though, Congress must pass a law allowing the former military man to serve in a civilian post. 
 
 There is a limit to what Democrats can do. Rules changes in 2013 allow some nominees, including Cabinet picks, to be confirmed with a simple majority, preventing Democrats from demanding 60 votes to move forward. 
 
 Supreme Court vacancy 
 
 Adding to the drama of the new Congress will be high-profile confirmation hearings for Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. 
 
 Justice Antonin Scalia died last February and Republicans refused to consider Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland, insisting that the next president should fill the high court vacancy that’s now lasted more than 10 months. 
 
 Trump released a list of potential choices during the campaign that included Senator Mike Lee of Utah, who clerked for Justice Samuel Alito. Since the election, the president-elect also has met with Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who clerked for former Chief Justice William Rehnquist, prompting talk about a possible nomination for the onetime presidential rival. 
 
 Trump has said he wants to nominate a justice who would help overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion. Cruz and Lee would fulfill that pledge. 
 
 New face in leadership 
 
 The point man for Senate Democrats is Brooklyn-born Chuck Schumer, who will be a chief antagonist to fellow New Yorker Trump. 
 
 Schumer succeeds Nevada’s Harry Reid, who retired after five terms, and joins Congress’ top leaders — Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, and Speaker Ryan — in what is certain to be tough negotiations next year on spending and policies. 
 
 Russian hacking 
 
 The first public hearing on the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia interfered in the US election is Thursday in the Senate Armed Services Committee, with James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, set to testify. Expect individual panels to investigate, but not a special, high-profile select committee. McConnell has rejected that bipartisan call. ||||| Early morning traffic rolls toward the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 14, 2016. (Photo: J. David Ake, AP) 
 
 WASHINGTON — Bills to block or roll back federal regulations, initially conceived by Republicans as a check on President Obama’s power, are high on the agenda when the House returns to Washington this week and the changes could become reality shortly after the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. 
 
 The 115th Congress begins Tuesday with a Republican majority in the House and Senate preparing for the arrival of a Republican president for the first time in eight years. 
 
 The House is expected to take up two bills — the Midnight Rules Act and the REINS Act (which stands for Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny) — that passed on largely party-line votes in the 114th, 113th and 112th congressional sessions, but died in the Senate. The REINS Act would require that before any new major regulation could take effect, the House and Senate would have to pass a resolution of approval. The Midnight Rules Act would let Congress invalidate rules in bulk that passed in the final year of a presidential term. 
 
 The House is also expected to consider a nonbinding resolution disapproving the Dec. 23 United Nations Security Council vote that called on Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank. The United States abstained in that vote, allowing the measure to pass. 
 
 Regulations are adopted by the executive branch to implement laws passed by Congress and signed by the president. Congress already has the power to repeal laws by passing a new bill and getting the president to sign it. And under the 1996 Congressional Review Act, Congress can pass a resolution of disapproval to block a rule if it acts within 60 days of notification from an agency. 
 
 The new legislation would further expand congressional power by preventing an administration from implementing rules without another vote. Under the REINS act, a proposed regulation would be deemed rejected if Congress was in session for 70 days and took no action. The bill allows for a major rule to take effect for a single 90-day period if the president determined it was necessary because of an imminent threat to health or safety or other emergency. 
 
 “Our federal agencies are out of control, and Congress is partly to blame for that,” the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia, said in a release last week. “We’ve ceded our legislative responsibility to agencies that were never intended to make laws, and the result has been redundant, counterproductive rules that have massive impacts on our economy.” 
 
 Read more: 
 
 When the House considered the Midnight Rules Act in November, the White House said it would recommend that Obama veto it. Trump, however, has taken a page from the conservative playbook and blamed government regulations for holding down economic growth and job creation. He has pledged to eliminate two regulations for every new one adopted during his presidency. 
 
 The REINS Act and Midnight Rules Act are aimed at major rules. An April 2015 analysis by the Congressional Budget Office said are those that meet one of these conditions: an economic impact of more than $100 million; cause significant price increases for consumers, industries, geographic regions or state or local governments; or have significant adverse effects on competition, employment, investment, productivity or foreign competition. 
 
 The CBO said that over the past five years, 82 major rules have been adopted each year, on average. Blocking such regulations in the future would have “a significant effect on direct spending,” but CBO could not predict whether the effect would be positive or negative because it could not say whether Congress would block regulations to increase or decrease spending. 
 
 Before the House voted on the final REINS Act in 2015, Democrats unsuccessfully tried to include amendments that would exempt rules that affected veterans health care, nuclear reactor safety, transportation of hazardous materials, and the safety of products used or consumed by children under the age of 2. Each attempt was rejected in a largely party-line vote. 
 
 Critics say the changes would endanger the public and worsen gridlock in government. 
 
 “Regulations are public protections that are intended to safeguard regular citizens from dealing with unclean air and water, financial crises and unsafe products,” said Lisa Gilbert, director of the CongressWatch program at Public Citizen. “They are intended to protect us, and to do away with them wholesale is an extremely problematic approach.” 
 
 Gilbert said that while no one would argue every regulation is perfect, the changes Congress seeks to make would effectively stymie future rulemaking and allow Congress to erase actions the Obama administration took since the summer. She said she hoped there would be enough votes in the Senate to sustain a filibuster on the Midnight Rules bill, but on the REINS Act, “it’s possible there could be a path” for it to pass. 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2hKrOZv ||||| Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanRyan, McConnell brought props to meeting to talk Trump out of government shutdown: report Mother used in ad attacking Kansas Dem candidate is state GOP official Overnight Defense: Trump said to extend Syria strategy | Mattis pushes Taliban talks during Afghanistan visit | Trump says he 'most likely' won't shut down government MORE (R-Wis.) announced to the House Republican Conference on Tuesday night that leaders have reached a sweeping year-end deal on taxes and funding the government after days of intense negotiations. 
 
 The full text of the 2009-page omnibus bill was posted online early Wednesday morning at about 1:30 a.m. 
 
 The delayed posting of the omnibus text means that in order to adhere to the so-called three-day rule, House GOP leaders will have to wait until Friday to hold a vote on the legislation. 
 
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 Lawmakers had exited a Tuesday night House GOP conference meeting with the expectation of voting Thursday on the spending package. But Ryan is unlikely to want to waive the self-imposed rule less than two months into his Speakership on such a massive bill, meaning the vote will likely slip to Friday. 
 
 In the meantime, the House and Senate are expected to easily clear another stopgap measure to keep the government funded through Dec. 22. Current funding expires Wednesday night. 
 
 Ryan unveiled the details of the agreement while the political world was fixated on the fifth GOP presidential debate in Las Vegas. 
 
 He told colleagues that the spending bill will postpone the "Cadillac tax" on expensive healthcare plans and the tax package will place a two-year moratorium on the medical device tax, two critical sources of revenue for ObamaCare. 
 
 The Speaker told rank-and-file Republicans that they won more victories in the tax package than in the $1.15 trillion omnibus funding bill, which has been largely stripped of the policy amendments that Republicans wanted, according to a GOP lawmaker in the room. 
 
 Rep. Kevin Brady Kevin Patrick BradyDems vow to grab Trump tax returns upon taking majority Overnight Health Care: Kavanaugh questioned if Roe v. Wade was 'settled law' in leaked email | Senate to vote next week on opioid package | Officials seek to jail migrant children indefinitely | HHS chief, lawmakers meet over drug prices On The Money: GOP shrugs off Trump shutdown threat | Trump warns Japan ties could sour over trade | US businesses add 163k workers in August | House GOP huddles on 'tax cut 2.0' MORE (R-Texas), chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, said the tax package provides $560 billion through breaks that will no longer expire — and $650 billion in total tax relief — over 10 years. 
 
 The text of that bill, which runs more than 200 pages, was posted online just before midnight. 
 
 Several lawmakers who heard the presentation said the omnibus includes a two-year delay of the Cadillac tax, something senior officials in the Obama administration opposed. 
 
 Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid Harry Mason ReidDems can’t ‘Bork’ Kavanaugh, and have only themselves to blame Dem senator: Confidential documents would 'strongly bolster' argument against Kavanaugh's nomination Senate cuts work week short after nominations deal MORE (Nev.) made an all-out push for including the Cadillac tax freeze, which is a top priority of labor unions, whose members would be hit especially hard by it. 
 
 
 
 The deal also includes a five-year extension of tax breaks for wind and solar energy companies, something Democrats wanted. 
 
 It extends the 30 percent solar investment tax credit and a credit for solar-powered energy-efficient properties for three years before phasing it down in the final two. 
 
 The deal also extends the wind protection tax credit for two years before phasing it down over three years until the 2022 expiration date. 
 
 
 
 In exchange, Republicans have secured language in the omnibus that would lift the ban that has been in place since the 1970s on exporting crude oil from the United States. 
 
 Ryan emphasized that many popular business tax provisions, including the research and development tax credit and the Section 179 small-business expensing deduction, would be locked into law by the agreement. 
 
 Democrats in turn won provisions that would keep the 2009 expansions of the child tax credit, earned income tax credit and American opportunity tax credit for college tuition, all core pieces of President Obama’s stimulus law, on the books indefinitely. 
 
 “This evening Republican members were presented an omnibus spending bill and a robust tax extender package that will provide permanent relief to families and job creators,” said AshLee Strong, Ryan’s spokeswoman. 
 
 “While not getting everything we wanted, the Speaker noted that both packages include many provisions that Republicans have long fought for,” she said. 
 
 The deal also extends the state and local sales tax deduction indefinitely, another one of Reid’s priorities, as well as the deduction for teachers’ out-of-pocket classroom expenses. 
 
 It locks in the minimum 9 percent low-income housing tax credit rate floor and the employer wage credit for employees on active military duty. 
 
 Sen. Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerKavanaugh thoroughly understands the role of impartiality in America's judicial system Left fed up with Schumer’s Supreme Court playbook Election Countdown: Fallout from Massachusetts stunner | In Delaware, Carper looks to avoid next progressive upset | Dem 2020 primary already in full swing | How a Dem ex-governor hopes to take red-state Tennessee | GOP challengers hit Dems over tax votes MORE (N.Y.), the third-ranking member of the Senate Democratic leadership, scored a victory with the inclusion of language extending a mass transit tax benefit for the long-term. His office estimates it would save riders on the Long Island Rail Road more than $1,300 a year. 
 
 Schumer argues mass transit riders should get the same tax benefit as people who commute by car. Under current law, the monthly exclusion for employer-provided parking benefits is $250. 
 
 The omnibus also includes a $8.1 billion extension of the healthcare and compensation benefits for rescue workers who responded to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 
 
 Some conservatives are vowing to vote against the spending bill because it does not include language to halt the administration’s program to resettle Syrian refugees in the United States. 
 
 Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said, "There's a lot of reason for Republicans to vote for it." But he declined to predict how many Republicans would support it. 
 
 "Even when I was the whip I wouldn't tell you the number," he said while leaving the closed-door meeting. "Let 'em read through it, and we'll know more tomorrow." 
 
 Naomi Jagoda contributed reporting. 
 
 - Updated on Dec. 16 at 5:03 p.m. ||||| Despite a frantic lobbying effort, President Donald Trump and House GOP leaders are still short of the votes they need to pass their Obamacare replacement bill, just two days before the legislation is set to be taken up on the floor. 
 
 Conservative hard-liners from the House Freedom Caucus are threatening to derail the legislation, saying revisions announced on Monday night don’t go far enough. A handful of moderate Republicans are also balking at the Trump-backed measure. They’re worried about damaging themselves politically by voting for a proposal that will never make it through the Senate. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 The upshot is that Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan and other GOP leaders are dealing with a legislative balloon — whenever they push on one side, it pops out somewhere else. Every concession or revision they make has the potential to cause more problems for the other end of the conference. 
 
 White House officials and Republican leaders remain optimistic that they will get the 215 votes they need, but it will be very tight. 
 
 Hours after being singled out by Trump over his opposition to the Republican health care plan, Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows said his group of conservatives still has the votes to block the bill. Freedom Caucus insiders say the group has 27 members who are firmly against it or leaning "no." 
 
 House GOP leaders can afford to lose only 22 members on the bill. 
 
 Trump, eager to stave off an embarrassing defeat that could hobble his legislative agenda for the rest of the year, has dramatically stepped up his efforts to shift votes. 
 
 After personally calling out Meadows during a GOP Conference meeting Tuesday, Trump held a series of face-to-face meetings with lawmakers later in the day. At a bill-signing ceremony in the West Wing Tuesday afternoon, Trump pulled aside a number of Freedom Caucus members, including Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.), to try to cajole them to support the package. 
 
 Later in the afternoon, Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) escorted a group of more than 15 moderate members to the Oval Office to meet with Trump. And the president will continue to buttonhole GOP members at a high-profile fundraiser for the National Republican Congressional Committee Tuesday night. 
 
 “I think these group meetings are great,” said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). “[Members] can explain, they get the one-on-one; members get to talk about what the concerns are. The president’s really become very versed in it. I was really impressed by it … He’s been very flexible with his time.” 
 
 Yet GOP leaders and White House officials privately admit they’re still short of the votes they need. 
 
 “We’re not there yet,” said a top House Republican. “I think we’ll get there, especially with Trump working it, but we’re not there right now.” 
 
 Freedom Caucus sources said the group is planning to hold a news conference early Wednesday to trumpet its opposition to the bill, despite Trump's pleas for support. The group's leaders hope to have all 27 members who oppose or are leaning against the measure show up, as well as ultraconservatives in the Senate who oppose it. 
 
 "I serve at the will of 750,000 people in western North Carolina, and my primary job, more than anything else, is to serve them," Meadows told reporters Tuesday. "I believe I am representing them in opposing this bill because it won’t lower premiums. And until it does I’m going to be a no — even if it sends me home." 
 
 Meadows also met privately with Vice President Mike Pence after the GOP Conference meeting, but did not change his position. The lawmaker said Pence did not lean too hard on him. 
 
 “Was it brass knuckles or bare fists? No,” Meadows said afterward. 
 
 Scalise and other members of leadership met with Meadows again during the day but got nowhere. 
 
 Despite Trump’s victory in November, and their claims of fealty and support for the new president, Freedom Caucus members remain the key bloc of votes in the House GOP Conference. These recalcitrant conservatives have dogged Ryan and former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) for years, and if Trump can't move them, the thinking is nobody can. 
 
 Influential Washington-based conservative outside groups — including the Club for Growth and Heritage Action — have come out against the final version of the bill and are pressuring lawmakers to vote against it. 
 
 Ryan and GOP leaders plan to take the bill to the floor Thursday regardless of what they expect the outcome to be, despite the problems that could occur if they lose, GOP lawmakers and aides told POLITICO. They're hoping that Trump's message to the GOP Conference Tuesday will sink in over the next 48 hours and persuade enough members to back the measure. 
 
 “We still have two days before the vote," said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), the chief deputy majority whip. "This did the right thing and helped move members. And it was the right thing for the president to come in and take ownership of this." 
 
 McHenry insisted that Trump wasn't threatening Meadows, despite the fact that the president had singled out the North Carolina Republican several times during the closed GOP Conference meeting. 
 
 "The president said publicly and privately he likes Mark Meadows, that Meadows is going to work with him, and Meadows has said likewise," McHenry added. "I think [Meadows] will get to yes.” 
 
 Rep. Rod Blum (R-Iowa), one of the few Freedom Caucus members who has a close relationship with GOP leadership, said Trump's remarks at the Conference meeting — and the building pressure — just "steels my resolve." 
 
 “The way it stands right now, no,” he would not vote for the bill, Blum told POLITICO. “Not because of the Freedom Caucus, but because I’m a free-marketer and I’m a businessman. ... And the present bill doesn’t give us a free market. I want health insurance premiums to come down. … This bill doesn’t give us a free market.” 
 
 Blum's position appears to be a significant problem for GOP leaders, since he's seen as more willing to engage on potential compromises than other Freedom Caucus members. 
 
 Even one of Trump's closest allies in the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Scott DesJarlais, remains opposed to the GOP health care legislation. Trump tried to work the Tennessee Republican during a trip on Air Force One last week. Yet DesJarlais told him he was afraid a vote in favor would haunt him the way tax increases haunted President George H.W. Bush, according to a source familiar with their conversation. 
 
 “When we get it right, I’ll be there,“ DesJarlais said after leaving the GOP Conference meeting. “If he’s going to put his name on this,” the Tennessee Republican said of Trump, “we need it to work.” 
 
 Prescription Pulse A weekly briefing on pharmaceutical policy news — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. 
 
 Still, the entire Freedom Caucus is not opposing the bill, and the group hasn’t take a formal stance. GOP leaders have solidified the support of Reps. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) and Dave Schweikert (R-Ariz.), for instance, though Schweikert acknowledged that he is an "outlier" among his conservative colleagues. 
 
 More moderate Republicans remain a problem as well. They worry about efforts to cut off Medicaid for those who signed up under Obamacare, or the impact the GOP plan could have on the working poor. 
 
 Rep. Leonard Lance (R-N.J.), after meeting with Trump on Tuesday afternoon, said he still intends to vote against the plan. 
 
 “[Trump] wanted to hear our concerns, and he certainly did hear our concerns,” Lance said. "I think we need to make sure health care policy is accessible to those who need health care policy, and I don’t think this legislation does that.” 
 
 Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), probably the most high-profile moderate, declared he has just as many reservations about the bill after meeting with Trump as he did going into the Oval Office powwow. 
 
 And Rep. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania, one of Trump’s earliest and most ardent backers on Capitol Hill, announced on Twitter that he would vote against the American Health Care Act after Trump’s personal plea for passage. 
 
 "Due to my concern over lack of verification that tax credits won't go to people unlawfully in U.S.,” Barletta wrote, “I can't support AHCA in its current form.” ||||| A Republican-controlled Congress opens Tuesday with the most sweeping conservative agenda in decades, providing Donald Trump ample room to gut the Affordable Care Act, slash corporate tax rates and undo Obama-era environmental regulations. 
 
 The House is almost certain to reelect Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) as its first order of business, dispensing with the messy political infighting that has hobbled Republicans in the past. 
 
 And the Senate will swiftly begin vetting the president-elect’s most controversial Cabinet picks, ready to confirm some when Trump is inaugurated as president on Jan. 20. 
 
 Yet Republicans remain at odds on some high-profile issues — such as how aggressively to investigate Russian hacking in the 2016 election — and how to fulfill other big-ticket promises, such as replacing Obamacare. 
 
 Despite firm Republican control of both the White House and Congress, the internal disputes have left them without a clear plan yet for Trump’s first 100 days, or an endgame for the two years of the 115th Congress. 
 
 Trump’s often shifting views on major issues will test relations with GOP’s leaders on Capitol Hill, and his willingness to skirt ideological rigidity gives incoming Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco an opening to influence and shape the president’s evolving agenda. 
 
 President Obama will visit Capitol Hill on Wednesday to meet with Democrats bracing for their new role, not just as the minority party, but as the main roadblock preventing Trump from dismantling the healthcare law and other parts of the Obama agenda. 
 
 Republicans will also assemble behind closed doors. Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who was a popular conservative congressman before he was elected governor of Indiana, is likely to serve as a crucial link between the Trump administration and its allies in Congress. 
 
 Given Trump’s inexperience in government, Pence is expected to play an enhanced role, perhaps like the one former Vice President Richard Cheney held under President George W. Bush. 
 
 At a minimum, Pence could provide a vital conduit between the untested new president and his more ideological party members in Congress, especially as Ryan’s own relationship with Trump has been strained. 
 
 Ryan flip-flopped over Trump — first withholding his endorsement, then ultimately campaigning for him — but the speaker insists he and the president-elect have let bygones pass as they talk almost daily on their plans for fulfilling Republican promises to voters. 
 
 “Very soon after the race, Donald and I said: ‘Look, this is fantastic. We have so much to do. Let's forget about, you know, any differences in the past and let's get working on this agenda,’” Ryan said recently on Fox News. “And that's exactly what we've been doing from -- that day on.” 
 
 Once Trump takes office, Republicans will face enormous pressure to score some legislative wins after six years of trying to block most of Obama’s initiatives. 
 
 Lawmakers will vote this week on low-hanging fruit -- a popular GOP measure to rein in the executive branch by requiring congressional approval for new federal regulations with an economic impact of more than $100 million. 
 
 The measure, which passed the Republican House three times since 2011, is a GOP priority. Its supporters say it would have prevented nearly all the climate and employment rule changes of the Obama era. 
 
 Republicans are also expected to punish Democrats for last year’s gun control sit-in, led by civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), by imposing new rules that would slap up to $2,500 fines on lawmakers who film such floor protests from smartphones or other devices. 
 
 Whether that would pass judicial review is less clear. Opponents say the proposed ban is clearly unconstitutional. 
 
 But the GOP’s top promise — to end Obamacare — remains a tough haul. 
 
 Votes are expected in coming days on legislation to begin repealing the Affordable Care Act. But these first steps will be largely symbolic while lawmakers debate the details of dismantling the healthcare law. 
 
 With 20 million Americans now benefiting from Obamacare, the GOP’s gutting of it comes with an asterisk. 
 
 Republicans are also likely to postpone fully dismantling the healthcare law until they can sort out their own ideas for a yet-to-be-determined alternative. 
 
 That could push a full Obamacare repeal and replace until 2018 or 2019, after the midterm elections. 
 
 “Repeal and delay, it doesn’t even have alliteration,” Pelosi scoffed on a conference call Monday with reporters. “It’s an admission that it’s a lot for them to lose politically.” 
 
 Similarly, Republicans are still working out the details of tax reform beyond the lower rates proposed in the House GOP’s “Better Way” blueprint agenda for the new year. 
 
 Ryan will almost certainly reemerge as speaker in Tuesday’s floor vote. But his leadership remains constrained by the same internal party divisions that hobbled his predecessor, John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), and that have prevented Republicans from making gains on a cohesive agenda. 
 
 Those divisions surfaced late Monday when Republicans split during a closed-door session over a proposal to gut a congressional ethics office at a time when Trump has promised to come to Washington and “drain the swamp.” Approval of the proposal signaled a rocky start to the new session.
– The 115th Congress will be sworn in at noon Tuesday, per WXYZ, which anticipates "an aggressive campaign" by Republicans to take down eight years' worth of President Obama's policies. The station adds that Democrats are ready to fight back by "swaying public opinion" and using their filibuster in the Senate. What else to look for Tuesday: Both the Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe predict an easy re-election of Paul Ryan as speaker of the House. Once Ryan retakes the helm, he'll oversee the oath administration to House members. The vetting process will begin in the Senate for some of President-elect Trump's more eyebrow-raising administration picks, including "foreclosure king" Steve Mnuchin, tapped as Treasury chief, and Rex Tillerson, the ExxonMobil CEO with questionable ties to Russia in line to be secretary of state. One confirmation expected to sail through: retired Gen. James Mattis for defense secretary. The biggest hunk on the legislative chopping block: ObamaCare. But the Times notes any immediate moves against the health care law would be "largely symbolic" as the GOP scrambles to work out the details and come up with their own alternative—which means a full repeal might not happen until after midterm elections. Blocking or pulling back on regulations will be another priority of the Congress, per USA Today, with a bill expected that would give the GOP-controlled Congress approval power over any new federal regulations, as well as a "Midnight Rules Act" that would give Congress sway to nullify in bulk any rules passed during a president's final year in office. Citizens are nervously watching the outcome for Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, with MinnPost noting that "any movement from the GOP" in terms of entitlement reform "could bring some of the messiest politics of 2017." Also on deck: a major tax revamp, the dismantling of Obama-placed environmental regulations, and the nomination of a Supreme Court justice to replace the late Antonin Scalia, per the Independent. "It's a big job to actually have responsibility and produce results," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Sunday, per the New York Times. "And we intend to do it." Not that the Republicans' hold on Congress guarantees a unified GOP front: The Times notes "internal disputes" have resulted in no "clear plan yet for Trump's first 100 days, or an endgame for the two years of the 115th Congress." Also complicating matters for the GOP: the president-elect's "often shifting views" on big issues and a "willingness to skirt ideological rigidity." (Also on the Congress itinerary for Tuesday: a vote on a proposal to "effectively kill" the Office of Congressional Ethics.)