After threatening for days to vote no on a federal budget bill that will cut health care for the poor and give tax cuts to the rich, Maryland’s lone Republican in Congress abandoned his position and cast his vote for the sprawling White House plan, helping President Donald Trump achieve a substantial, if not hard-won legislative victory.

Rep. Andy Harris voted to approve the measure he said will save more than a trillion dollars for the country’s bottom line and deliver Trump’s tax policy. Maryland Democrats in Congress have blasted the Republican-led bill, saying it will hurt American familes.

Harris initially opposed the bill because he said the Senate’s version added more to the national deficit and cuts to fund Trump’s tax plans didn’t go far enough. But to win his support, Trump promised to make even greater cuts in the near future, according to The Baltimore Sun.

There were no changes made to the bill, and it’s not yet clear which programs or how much additional funding would be slashed by the Trump administration, or exactly how, but the exchange at least served as a face-saving gesture for the chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus.

Several news outlets that reported Republican Freedom Caucus members said “significant agreements” were made with the Trump administration for future “executive actions.”

In the end, the bill’s passage by a tight margin could be seen as a defeat for Harris’ strategy of withholding support to gain bigger cuts during this year’s budget negotiations and signaled Trump’s dominance over even the most conservative GOP members.

The House approved the Senate’s version of the bill, 218-214, sending the measure to Trump for his signature. Harris’ office and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.

The Eastern Shore congressman has been outspoken on his desire to cull the Medicaid rolls.

The bill is expected to have a direct adverse effect on a large swath of some of the most vulnerable people. An estimated 24,000 people in Harris’ district are expected to lose access to Medicaid because of the bill. In Dorchester County, Harris’ home base, more than 23% of residents rely on Medicaid and 41% of the county’s children are on a federal-state health insurance program, according to 2023 census estimates.

In a radio station interview before casting his yes vote, Harris pooh-poohed reports that millions of people across the country will lose health care benefits and blamed Democrats for stoking fear, saying his colleagues on the other side of the aisle “just want our taxes to go up.”

“What the Democrats are trying to do is create fears about people dying, us pushing people off health care,” he said. “It’s the fear we always hear from the Democrats.”

He said the president has “great messaging” on the bill and will make sure American families realize they will benefit from it.

Harris criticized what he said were nonworking, “able-bodied” adults on Medicaid who should be contributing to their own health care insurance.

“Look if you’re not willing to work — you’re able-bodied, you’re not willing to work — yeah, you’re probably not going to get a free ride on Medicaid anymore,” he said. “Again, the majority of Americans agree with that.”

Seventy-two percent of Marylanders on Medicaid are working adults. People on Medicaid suffer from disabilities that keep them from working and being able to access work health insurance programs; others are children or seniors in nursing homes.

“I’m going to vote for this because we were able to make certain that we got commitment to — again even outside of this bill — to reduce the federal deficit,” Harris said.

Trump said he will sign the bill in a White House ceremony on Friday during the July Fourth holiday to make the provisions law.

Moving forward, Harris said, Republicans in the House will likely deepen cuts as they work through appropriations bills.

When they return from break, Congress will decide where taxpayer money goes, reviewing 12 separate budget bills and doling out money line-by-line to fund government operations.

“We’re actually going to mark up a budget that’s even lower for this year,” he said, “and that’s how we get it started on a pathway to what I call fiscal sanity.”