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Thousands trying to reach Western Europe are facing an ever increasing desperate situation as countries close their borders and are overwhelmed by the flow of migrants and refugees.

Here, a mounted policeman leads a group of migrants near Dobova, Slovenia, October 20, 2015.

Credit: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters

Doctors and paramedics take care of a child who was later taken to the hospital following a rescue operation when a boat with migrants sank while attempting to reach the Greek island of Lesbos from Turkey on October 28, 2015.

The Greek coast guard said it rescued 242 refugees and migrants off the eastern island of Lesbos on October 28, 2015, after the wooden boat they traveled in capsized.

Credit: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images

A Greek Coast Guard helicopter flies over fishing boats trying to rescue refugees and migrants, after a boat carrying more than 200 people sunk while crossing part of the Aegean sea from Turkey, near the Greek island of Lesbos, October 28, 2015.

At least three migrants drowned and the Greek coastguard rescued 242 others when their wooden boat sank north of the island of Lesbos on Wednesday, authorities said. Four other boats sank the same day leaving at least 15 people dead, mainly children, in total.

Credit: Giorgos Moutafis/Reuters

A man holds three children wearing thermal blankets after their arrival in bad weather from Turkey on the Greek island of Lesbos , Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2015.

With winter fast approaching, the danger grows and more are taking risky journeys.

Credit: Santi Palacios/AP

Mohammed Hasan, an 18-month-old Syrian toddler, is seen onshore after he was rescued by a Turkish fisherman after a boat of migrants sunk a few miles off the coast of Turkey, October 21, 2015. The boy was reunited with his mother in Turkey after he was revived with CPR.

Nearly 50,000 people have made it to Greece's coast in a few short days, but dozens more have died at sea, including 14 in this incident.

Credit: CBS News

Migrants protect themselves from the rain as they make their way to Slovenia from Trnovec, Croatia, October 19, 2015.

Thousands of migrants crossed into Slovenia after Croatia closed its frontier, October 19, 2015. Hungary sealed its border with Croatia the previous week. Many refugees are now facing deteriorating conditions as winter approaches.

The Balkans faced a growing backlog of migrants, thousands building up on cold, wet borders after the closure of Hungary's southern frontier diverted them to Slovenia.

Credit: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters

A policeman holds the hand of a young girl as migrants are escorted through Dobova to a holding camp in Dobova, Slovenia, October 22, 2015.

Thousands of migrants marched across the border from Croatia into Slovenia as authorities intensify their efforts to attempt to cope with a human tide unseen in Europe since World War II.

Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Croatian riot police officers control the access to a refugee camp as more migrants arrive from the Serbian border on September 22, 2015 in Opatovac, Croatia.

Croatia built a camp to control the flow of migrants to Hungary with a capacity of 4,000 people.

Credit: David Ramos, Getty Images

Hundreds of migrants who arrived on the second train of the day at Hegyeshalom on the Hungarian and Austrian border, walk the four kilometres (2.5 miles) into Austria on September 22, 2015.

Thousands of migrants arrived in Austria over the weekend with more en-route from Hungary, Croatia and Slovenia. Politicians from across the European Union are holding meetings on the refugee crisis September 23, to try and solve the crisis and the dispute of how to relocate 120,000 migrants across EU states.

Credit: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Migrants and refugees queue to register at a camp after crossing the Greek-Macedonian border near Gevgelija on September 22, 2015.

EU interior ministers were set to hold emergency talks to try and bridge deep divisions over Europe's worst migrant crisis since World War II, as pressure piles on member states to reach an agreement.

Credit: NikolayI Doychinov/AFP/Getty Images

A local man surveys a huge pile of deflated dinghies, tubes and life vests left by arriving refugees and migrants on the Greek island of Lesbos on September 18, 2015.

Credit: Yannis Behrakis/Reuters

Migrants desperately try and board a train heading for Zagreb from Tovarnik station on September 20, 2015 in Tovarnik, Croatia.

Croatia continues to send buses and trains north to its border with Hungary, as officials have estimated that around 20,000 migrants have entered since September 16.

Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

The open-door policy of the Croatian government for migrants and refugees lasted just 24 hours. After an influx of an estimated 13,000 migrants and refugees in two days, the country said it could take no more, September 18, 2015.

A baby cries as migrants clamor to board a bus in Tovarnik, Croatia, September 17, 2015. Asylum seekers thwarted by a new Hungarian border fence and repelled by riot police poured into Croatia, spreading the strain.

Credit: Antonio Bronic/Reuters

Migrants protest at the Tovarnik railway station, Croatia September 18, 2015. Migrants continued to stream through fields from Serbia into the European Union on Friday, undeterred by Croatia's closure of almost all road crossings after an influx of more than 11,000. Helpless to stem the flow, Croatian police rounded them up at the Tovarnik on the Croatian side of the border, where several thousand had spent the night under open skies. Some kept traveling, and reached Slovenia overnight.

Credit: Antonio Bronic/Reuters

A migrant man remonstrates with security as he and other migrants try to force their way through police lines at Tovarnik station for a train to take them to Zagreb on September 17, 2015 in Tovarnik, Croatia. Migrants are crossing into Croatia from Serbia two days after Hungary sealed its border with Serbia, the majority of them want to reach Germany, amid divisions within the European Union over how to manage the ongoing crisis.

Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Migrants force their way through police lines at Tovarnik station to board a train bound for Zagreb on September 17, 2015 in Tovarnik, Croatia. Migrants are diverting to Croatia from Serbia after Hungary closed its border with Serbia, with the majority of them trying to reach Germany amid divisions within the European Union over how to manage the ongoing crisis.

Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Migrants wait near the train station in Tovarnik, Croatia, September 17, 2015. Amid chaotic scenes at its border with Serbia, Croatia said on Thursday it could not cope with a flood of migrants seeking a new route into the EU after Hungary kept them out by erecting a fence and using tear gas and water cannon against them.

Credit: Antonio Bronic/Reuters

Policemen direct migrants during a stampede to board a bus in Tovarnik, Croatia on September 17, 2015. Croatia said it could not take in any more migrants, amid chaotic scenes of riot police trying to control thousands who have streamed into the European Union country from Serbia.

Credit: Antonio Bronic/Reuters

A migrant taunts Hungarian riot police as they fire tear gas and water cannons on the Serbian side of the border, near Roszke, Hungary, September 16, 2015. The clash occurred after hundreds of migrants, stuck at the sealed border between Serbia and Hungary, protested and tried to break through.

Serbia condemned Hungary's use of water cannon and tear gas against migrants on their border, saying Hungary had "no right" to do so, the Serbian state news agency Tanjug reported.

Credit: Stoyan Nenov/Reuters

An injured migrant carries a child during clashes with Hungarian riot police at the border crossing with Serbia in Roszke, Hungary on September 16, 2015. Hungarian police fired tear gas and water cannons at protesting migrants demanding they be allowed to enter from Serbia on the second day of a border crackdown.

Credit: Karnok Csaba/Reuters

Migrants protest as Hungarian riot police fires tear gas and water cannons at the border crossing with Serbia in Roszke, Hungary, September 16, 2015.

Credit: Stoyan Nenov/Reuters

Hungarian riot policemen escort a migrant woman and a child in Roszke, Hungary on September 16, 2015.

Credit: Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Hungarian riot police watche from behind a fence as migrants protest on the Serbian side of the border, near Roszke, Hungary September 16, 2015.

Credit: Dado Ruvic/Reuters

A migrant is hit by a jet from a water cannon used by Hungarian riot police on the Serbian side of the border, near Roszke, Hungary September 16, 2015.

Hundreds of migrants protested the border closure and tried to break through the sealed border.

Credit: Marko Djurica/Reuters

Migrants and refugees demonstrate as Turkish police block the road at Esenler Bus Terminal in Istanbul, Turkey on September 16, 2015.

Credit: Ahmet Sik/Getty Images

Migrants and refugees demonstrate as Turkish police block the road at Esenler Bus Terminal in Istanbul, Turkey, September 16, 2015.

Credit: Ahmet Sik/Getty Images

A refugee stands looks through the fence at the Serbian border with Hungary near the town of Horgos on September 15, 2015.

Credit: Armend Nimani/AFP/Getty Images

Hungarian police officers stand in front of a fence on the Serbian side of the border after sealing it near the village of Horgos, Serbia, September 14, 2015, near the Hungarian migrant collection point in Roszke.

Hungarian police closed off the main crossing point for thousands of migrants and refugees entering from Serbia every day.

The number of migrants entering Hungary this year has risen above 200,000, police said September 14. Almost all of the migrants were seeking to travel onwards to western Europe, particularly Germany and Sweden.

Credit: Marko Djurica/Reuters

Police check the passports and papers of Syrian migrants at the border check point in the village of Szentgotthard, Hungary on September 14, 2015.

Two decades of frontier-free travel across Europe unravelled as countries re-established border controls in the face of an unprecedented influx of migrants, which broke the record for the most arrivals by land in a single day.

Credit: Srdjan Zivulovic/Reuters

A policeman guards migrants detained after crossing the border from Serbia near Asttohatolom, Hungary on September 15, 2015.

Hungary's right-wing government shut the main land route for migrants into the EU September 15, taking matters into its own hands to halt Europe's unprecedented influx of refugees while the bloc failed to agree a plan to distribute them.

Credit: Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Migrants queue to board buses bound for Vienna from Hegyshalom holding center on the Austrian border after Hungarian authorities closed the open railway track crossing in Hegyeshalom, Hungary, September 15, 2015.

Hungary implemented new laws to cope with the influx of migrants which became enforceable on the night of September 14. Since the beginning of 2015 the number of migrants using the so-called 'Balkans route' has exploded with migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey and then traveling on through Macedonia and Serbia before entering the EU via Hungary.

Credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

A railway wagon covered in barbed wire is placed at the Hungarian border with Serbia to stop migrants and refugees near the town of Horgos on September 15, 2015.

Hungarian police closed off the main crossing point for thousands of migrants and refugees entering from Serbia daily.

Credit: Armend Nimani/AFP/Getty Images

Migrants wait on the Serbian side of the border with Hungary in Roszke, September 15, 2015. Hungarian police detained 16 people claiming to be Syrian and Afghan migrants early in the day for illegally crossing the Serbian border fence, a police spokeswoman said, as tough new laws took effect to guard the southern frontier.

Credit: Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

Policemen fix registration bands on the wrists of migrant children at a train station near the border with Austria in Freilassing, Germany September 15, 2015.

A total of 4,537 asylum seekers reached Germany by train September 14 despite the imposition of new controls at the border with Austria, according to the federal police. The arrivals brought the number of asylum seekers who have entered Germany by train since the start of the month to 91,823, a police spokeswoman in Potsdam said.

Credit: Dominic Ebenbichler/Reuters

A refugee swims towards the shore after a dinghy carrying Syrian and Afghan refugees deflated some 100m away before reaching the Greek island of Lesbos, September 13, 2015.

An estimated 309,000 people have arrived by sea in Greece, the International Organization for Migration (IMO) said September 11, 2015. About half of those crossing the Mediterranean are Syrians fleeing civil war, according to the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.

Credit: Alkis Konstantinidis/Reuters

Migrants eat at a reception center after their arrival at the main railway station in Dortmund, Germany on September 13, 2015.

Germany re-imposed border controls on September 13 after Europe's most powerful nation acknowledged it could scarcely cope with thousands of asylum seekers arriving every day.

Credit: Ina Fassbender/Reuters

Migrants wait to board busses in Nickelsdorf, Austria on September 14, 2015.

Thousands of migrants walked unhindered across the border into Austria from Hungary on September 14, where the frontier was kept open despite Germany's sudden reintroduction of checks.

Credit: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters

Syrian refugee Asmaa wipes her tears as she waits for a train on the platform at the main railway station in Munich, September 13, 2015.

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Slovenia - Migrant crisis - Pictures - CBS News

The Trump administration is considering expanding the Department of Homeland Security's ability to removal certain illegal immigrants from the country without a court hearing before a judge, according to a report Friday.

The Washington Post says that the agency is weighing expanding the process known as expedited removal to illegal immigrants apprehended anywhere in the U.S. who cannot prove they have lived in the country continuously for more than 90 days.

Under current rules, the Homeland Security Department can only forgo immigration courts for immigrants who have been living in the country illegally for less than two weeks and were arrested within 100 miles of the border.

The Post obtained a 13-page internal agency memo that described this potential plan.

Two administration confirmed to the newspaper that the memo was shared within the White House in May, and DHS is reviewing comments on the document from the Office of Management and Budget.

Joanne Talbot, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, said she had not seen the memo, but said that no decisions have been made about it.

"The potential changes would allow DHS to more efficiently use resources to remove persons who have been illegally present for relatively brief periods of time while still observing due-process requirements," Talbot said.

Immigration advocacy groups argue the proposal would restrict more people of due-process rights to seek asylum or other legal status in the country.

In two immigration executive orders signed in January, Trump indicated he wanted to expand the use of expedited removals.

The potential change would be part of a stricter Trump administration approach to illegal immigration. The administration has already rescinded a policy from former President Barack Obama that limited the categories of illegal immigrants targeted for deportation to serious criminals, and recent border-crossers. The number of immigrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has fallen significantly since Trump took office.

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Trump administration may be looking to expand process allowing deportations of illegal immigrants without a court ... - Washington Examiner

Just over two years ago, while walking on a pier in San Francisco with her dad, Kate Steinle was shot and killed by an illegal immigrant with a criminal past and a record of deportations.

I firmly believe the federal government has limited constitutional responsibilities, but establishing justice and insuring domestic tranquility are among the few authorities that were engraved into our founding documents first sentence. In recent decades, however, the federal government has fallen through on these responsibilities when it comes to enforcing our immigration laws, and the loss of Kate is just one example of the consequences for that.

Kates killer had already been deported five times when he opened fire on July 1, 2015. Certainly, more must be done to secure our border, including building a more robust wall and giving border patrol agents the resources and technologies needed to create a more impenetrable barrier. And without question, the laws already on the books need to be better enforced.

But I also believe our laws could be stronger too.

Shortly before the two-year anniversary of Kates murder, I joined the House in passing Kates Law, which would significantly toughen the punishment for illegal immigrants who re-enter the country. While I believe we could go even farther with these punishments, Kates Law is a good first step.

San Francisco, where Kates murder took place, is also one of more than 300 so-called sanctuary cities that openly refuse to turn over criminal illegal immigrants to federal law enforcement.

Kates killer had seven felony convictions at the time of the murder. Less than four months before Kates death, he was turned over to San Francisco authorities for an outstanding drug warrant. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement asked that he be kept in custody until immigration agents could get there, but because San Francisco is a sanctuary city, he was released. This should never have happened. So, in addition to Kates Law, I helped pass the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, which cracks down on sanctuary cities like San Francisco by withholding valuable federal grants from them.

While the Senate will debate the legislation next, President Trump has already announced his support for both bills.

This is just the beginning. Ive also cosponsored the SMART Act, which would authorize additional personnel and new technologies to help secure the border, and Ive backed legislation to help stop the drug trafficking thats contributed to South Dakotas drug abuse and violent crime increases.

Kate should have never lost her life on that pier in 2015. Her killer should have never been in this country let alone, running free within it. We have to be stronger when it comes to enforcing the laws on the books, but we also have a constitutional responsibility to make sure the laws on the books are strong enough to keep our families and communities safe

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Cracking down on illegal immigration - Rapid City Journal

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Siobhan McAndrew, Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal Published 7:17 a.m. ET July 15, 2017 | Updated 7:17 a.m. ET July 15, 2017

Vice President Mike Pence will be the featured guest for Mornings In Nevada PACs Annual Basque Fry. The main dish? Stew with lamb testicle.(Photo: Alex Brandon, AP)

RENO, Nev. Vice President Mike Pence will get the opportunity to try lamb testicle at what has become an annual fundraiser for conservative causes, candidates and organizations at a ranch in Gardnerville, Nev.

Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt saidPence is the featured guest for Mornings In Nevada PACs Annual Basque Fry at Corley Ranch on Aug. 26.

We are truly excited for Nevada to welcome Vice President Mike Pence to this years third Annual Basque Fry event, Laxalt said. This has truly become the grassroots event for Nevada conservatives and Republicans, attracting residents from all 17 counties.

Pence will be part of a line up of entertainment and other speakers, according to organizers.

A Basque Fry is traditional stew with the main ingredient being lamb testicle.

The Basque Fry has attracted national figures including Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, current HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, former Ambassador John Bolton, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and businesswoman Carly Fiorina.

The Morning in Nevada PAC was created in 2014 by friends of Laxalt, who became Nevadas Attorney He was the youngest state Attorney General in the country at the time. The name comes from the 1984 campaign slogan of President Ronald Reagan who started off a commercial with the line, Its morning again in America.

For more information about the event, visitwww.morninginnevadapac.org.

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2v387AC

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Testicles on menu: Will Vice President Mike Pence try at Nevada fundraiser? - USA TODAY

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The White House launched an aggressive drive Friday to persuade key Republican governors to stop criticizing a Senate proposal to overhaul the nation's health-care system, urgently pressuring them in public and private ahead of a decisive week for the controversial legislation.

Despite the administration's sales pitch, however, four influential governors reiterated their concerns about the bill's impact on their states' most vulnerable individuals - underscoring the challenge facing the White House and Senate Republicans as they seek to fulfill a seven-year GOP promise to undo the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

"I've still got to come back to my concerns with regard to the Medicaid population," said Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, R, on his way to a private session with Vice President Mike Pence here at the summer meeting of the National Governors Association. Pence had earlier delivered a detailed speech to the entire group defending the bill.

Sandoval's views, along with those of three other governors whose states expanded Medicaid under the ACA - John Kasich of Ohio, Doug Ducey of Arizona and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas - could prove decisive in determining whether the Senate passes legislation next week. Republican senators from those states are closely watching how their governors respond to the newly revamped legislation as they decide whether to support it.

Kasich, who did not attend, issued a statement calling the revised Senate plan "still unacceptable" because of its Medicaid cuts and possible impact on the private ACA insurance market.

Pence joined Tom Price, President Donald Trump's health and human services secretary, and Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, to work governors in front of cameras and behind the scenes Friday in this waterfront city.

They offered a detailed pitch contrasting with the more general and sometimes contradictory rhetoric Trump has delivered on health care - but one that contained inaccuracies and quickly met with rebukes from health advocates. They claimed, for instance, that the bill would not throw millions off insurance and that disabled Americans have been denied care because of the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA, which is also known as Obamacare.

In his speech, Pence also said the ACA's expansion of Medicaid put "far too many able-bodied adults" on the program.

"I know Governor Kasich isn't with us, but I suspect that he's very troubled to know that in Ohio alone, nearly 60,000 disabled citizens are stuck on waiting lists, leaving them without the care they need for months or even years," said Pence.

The waiting lists Pence referred to apply to Medicaid's home and community-based services, and have not been affected by the program's expansion under the ACA. States have long had waiting lists for these services, and the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation's executive vice president, Diane Rowland, noted that waiting lists in non-expansion states are often longer than in expansion states, which currently receive a 95 percent federal match for their newly covered beneficiaries.

Kasich spokesman Jon Keeling said in an interview that Pence's suggestion that 60,000 disabled Ohioans remain on waiting lists "is not accurate," adding that to suggest Medicaid expansion hurt the state's developmentally disabled "system is false, as it is just the opposite of what actually happened."

"That waiting list is nothing new, and to attribute it to expansion is absurd," said Families USA's senior director of health policy, Eliot Fishman.

Moreover, the expansion population is not solely composed of able-bodied beneficiaries: It includes low-income parents and childless adults, some of whom have chronic illnesses.

The Senate Republican proposal would cut $772 billion from Medicaid over the next decade by phasing out the expansion population, and it makes even deeper cuts starting in 2025. By 2036, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the government would spend 35 percent less on Medicaid than under the current law.

Among the GOP senators who have questioned aspects of the Senate proposal, at least half a dozen hail from Medicaid-expansion states. Pence, a former governor of Indiana, expanded Medicaid in his state.

Under the Senate bill, roughly 15 million Medicaid recipients would lose coverage within a decade, according to the CBO, which is expected to provide an updated score on the revised legislation next week. But Trump officials are arguing that the administration can cushion the bill's financial blow to the states through a combination of legislative provisions and administrative measures.

In a departure from the president, who often has seemed to have little grasp of health policy details and the effect of them on everyday people, Pence delivered a speech in which he recounted stories of individuals he has met across the country who he said have been harmed by the ACA.

He named a Kentucky small-business owner who he said was struggling under increasing premiums, a disabled Ohio woman who he said lost her plan and doctor, and a Wisconsin grandmother who he said had to choose between paying for coverage and buying Christmas presents.

At least one Republican governor may have been swayed by the pitch: Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.

Haslam, whose state did not enter into the expanded Medicaid program, nonetheless had some concerns about the Senate legislation's impact on Tennessee, but he said he came away feeling better about the bill after hearing from administration officials.

"I definitely feel more positive about it," he said. "I was generally much more favorably impressed than I expected to be. They had a lot better story to tell than I thought."

GOP leaders have no margin for error as they seek to persuade several wavering senators to embrace the Senate plan. With the vice president prepared to cast the tiebreaking vote, 50 out of 52 Republican senators would have to approve the measure for it to pass.

Two already have said they object to voting on the bill in its current form: conservative Rand Paul of Kentucky and centrist Susan Collins from Maine. A third, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Thursday that the proposal did not address the concerns his governor has raised and that he would seek to change it.

Ducey met with Pence and his colleagues but said he still has reservations about the Senate bill. "It needs work," he said. "We're communicating with Senator McCain. We've given him specific language that we think will dramatically improve the bill, and the ball's in the Senate's court."

Until now, the White House has taken a largely hands-off approach to the Senate process, although Trump has said he would be "angry" if the bill fails and compared the effort of brokering a deal in the Senate to the quest for Mideast peace.

Sandoval, who is very popular in Nevada and whose reservations helped prompt Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., to come out against the original measure before the July Fourth recess, reiterated his dislike of the latest version of the bill as he made his way to an early meeting here Friday.

"My position has been consistent all along with regard to protecting the Medicaid expansion population," he said. "For Nevada that means 210,000 lives. I want to ensure that their health care is protected, so they can lead healthy and happy lives."

He said he had not spoken with Heller since Senate leaders unveiled their newest iteration of the legislation but hoped to have a conversation with him on Friday.

Kasich was more scathing in the statement he released before Pence spoke, saying the measure's "cuts to Medicaid are too deep and at the same time it fails to give states the ability to innovate to cope with those reductions."

"It also doesn't do enough to stabilize the insurance market, where costs are rising unsustainably and companies are simply dropping coverage," Kasich added.

Hutchinson welcomed some of the changes Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., made to the bill after weeks of consultations with elected officials. He described "some very significant improvements to the bill," including additional funds to help middle- and lower-income Americans buy private insurance.

But in an interview after Pence's speech - and before a scheduled meeting with the vice president - he said the Senate bill remained a "deep concern" to him "in terms of the cost shift we see to the states under the reduced growth rate for Medicaid spending."

Hutchinson said he has spoken to Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., "continually" about the bill, which he said is "moving in the right direction." But he said he was not ready to support it yet.

The latest draft of the bill adds $70 billion to a $112 billion state stabilization fund to be used over the course of a decade for several purposes, including helping consumers pay for insurance. It also changes the amount of funding each state receives under the Disproportionate Share Hospital program to be calculated off the state's uninsured rate, rather than its Medicaid enrollment.

Hutchinson said that he had asked for both those changes, as well as one that would allow states to include their Medicaid-expansion population in any calculations for future block grant funding of the program.

Sandoval said the stabilization fund - which Verma has been touting to Republicans from Medicaid-expansion states as a mechanism for minimizing the number of newly uninsured people - is an intriguing idea. But he was not sold yet.

"On its surface it sounds like it could be a good thing," said Sandoval. "But, you know, at the end of the day, I've got to see what it means in 2020 all the way to 2026."

Fishman's group did an analysis Friday showing that even if the entire fund was used over eight years, it would not cover insurance for the 11 million individuals who stand to lose their existing coverage. "The numbers just don't add up," he said.

Kasich, who has been working behind the scenes with both Republican and Democratic governors, criticized Senate leaders' decision to focus exclusively on passing a bill with only Republican support.

"These shortcomings flow from the fact that the Senate plan commits the same error as Obamacare - it's not bipartisan," Kasich said. "We can still fix this and repeal and replace Obamacare with ideas that will work, but it means having leaders from both sides sitting down together and working in good faith on solutions that responsibly manage Medicaid and stabilize our insurance market."

Early Saturday morning, Price and Verma will speak at a governors-only breakfast on the future of health-care. Later, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney will speak at a legislative briefing.

Asked Friday whether he could support the measure without the changes he has proposed, Ducey said, "I think they're deliberating. So let's let them deliberate."

- - -

Eilperin reported from Washington. The Washington Post's Abby Phillip in Washington contributed to this report.

Published: July 15, 2017 9:09 AM EDT

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Republican governor calls VP Pence's health care claims 'false' - Philly.com