With a series of votes already underway, Republican leaders and White House officials have accelerated their all-hands-on-deck push Wednesday to get the GOP megabill through the House and to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Multiple groups of House Republican lawmakers who have aired grievances with the Senate-passed version of the domestic policy bill have met Wednesday with Speaker Mike Johnson and have visited the White House to speak with Trump, who has demanded the bill get done by July 4.
Some potential holdouts sounded close to backing the sweeping legislation. “In the end, it’s hard to vote against making tax cuts permanent and fixing defense,” said Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who announced his retirement this week.
But a key group of conservative hard-liners signaled it was ready to dig in and fight for additional changes to the 887-page bill passed by the Senate. House leaders held a procedural vote open for more than an hour Wednesday afternoon as they negotiated with the holdouts.
Rep. Andy Harris, chair of the House Freedom Caucus, called on Trump to order senators back to town for further negotiations — a demand that would almost certain mean missing Trump’s July 4 deadline for final passage.
The Maryland Republican said he was ready to vote down the “rule” governing final debate of the megabil until it’s brought back closer to the House version.
“There’s a little work left to be done, but if the president calls the Senate back in town, we should be able to do it,” he said, adding, “I haven’t spoken to the president about it.”
Republican leaders, however, have been intent on keeping the bill moving as quickly as possible, cognizant that any significant delays could only embolden the intraparty holdouts. Asked about voting plans Wednesday morning, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Wednesday morning he expected final passage “sometime today.”
That could change if the holdouts band together and decide to withstand the lobbying blitz. Republicans were closely eyeing the early procedural votes; with full attendance, four GOP defections could sink the bill.
“If there’s four [GOP ‘nos’], there’s going to be 20 — and it’s going to be a jailbreak,” said one House Republican granted anonymity to candidly describe internal dynamics.
After a series of meeting with various groups of holdouts, Johnson professed confidence Wednesday afternoon: “I feel good about where we are and where we’re heading.” GOP leaders managed to eke out a 212-211 victory on an early procedural vote forced by Democrats, but more crucial votes will follow.
A White House pressure campaign started ramping up Monday night, when Trump, Vice President JD Vance and senior administration officials began a new round of public praise for the sweeping legislation — which includes a $5 trillion debt limit hike and deficit spending that has made many congressional Republicans anxious.
The White House officials have sought to tamp down the deficit concerns by encouraging members to ignore the costs of extending the 2017 tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of this year. Trump on Wednesday touted the bill’s “GROWTH, which will be the primary reason that the Big, Beautiful Bill will be one of the most successful pieces of legislation ever passed.”
“Our Country will make a fortune this year, more than any of our competitors, but only if the Big, Beautiful Bill is PASSED!” he wrote on Truth Social. “Republicans, don’t let the Radical Left Democrats push you around.”
A senior White House official said Trump is closely engaged on getting the bill passed. “He’s been working the phones pretty consistently over the last several days, and members have been calling him as well,” the official said. “He’s going to get it over the finish line.”
Leaders are also still dealing with objections from dozens of members concerned about the Medicaid provisions in the bill. The Senate deepened the cuts to the joint federal-state program in some respects, including by curtailing medical provider taxes — a key state financing mechanism. Some of those members traveled to the White House Wednesday morning to meet with Trump.
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), who attended the meeting as chair of the GOP’s Main Street Caucus, said he believed Trump “closed out just about everybody” who attended.
“Donald Trump is the best closer in the business, and we’re going to get it done,” he said, adding that “passage beats the hell out of failure.”
Johnson and White House officials are looking for ways to assuage grumpy members without agreeing to changes to the Senate-passed bill — which would require potentially weeks of additional negotiations and sending the bill back across the Capitol for more action. Johnson has already floated the potential of doing at least one and possibly two other party-line policy bills before the end of the Congress next year.
“We’re working through everybody’s concerns and letting them know this is the best possible product we can produce,” Johnson said Wednesday.
Stormy weather rolling through the mid-Atlantic was another brief complication. Many members saw their flights back to Washington canceled or delayed Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Johnson said in the morning he was “worried about flights” and acknowledged timelines could slip, but all but a handful of members were back by midday.
Democrats, who are threatening to force procedural votes to delay the megabill’s consideration, had only one absentee on the early procedural vote. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) was spotted at the Capitol Wednesday after missing weeks of votes due to a medical issue.
“Mother Nature’s not cooperating, but people are going to be here,” said Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the minority whip.
Ben Jacobs and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misidentified Rep. Dusty Johnson’s home state.
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