House Freedom Caucus chairman Andy Harris expressed no hope that President Donald Trump’s “one, big beautiful bill,” will pass as of Wednesday.
The House is set to vote on the sweeping tax and spending package, which is set to enact Trump’s economic agenda, including $3.8 trillion tax cuts and a policy to not tax tips and overtime. Harris said on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America” that House Republicans are “further away” from a deal over a proposal to increase the SALT cap, which he said “upset a lot of conservatives.”
“I think actually we’re further away from a deal because that SALT cap increase, I think, upset a lot of conservatives. Again, the conservatives are pushing for some balancing spending reductions. We actually stopped negotiating right before midnight because we actually had a deal that was then pulled off the table. So again, this bill actually got worse overnight. There is no way it passes today and again, we may need a couple of weeks to iron it out. But it’s not going anywhere today,” Harris said.
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Though most of the bill is complete, House Republicans are still looking to strike a deal on reforms to Medicaid, the Inflation Reduction Act’s green energy subsidies and the SALT cap.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he wanted to call for a vote on the legislation by Wednesday evening. After he and many blue-state Republicans agreed to boost the cap on the state-and-local tax reduction to $40,000, he told Politico that he is continuing to speak with the conservative holdouts to move the legislation forward.
Harris said it is “essential” that Republicans end the “waste, fraud and abuse” that exists in the current Medicaid program and to end the energy subsidies in order to get the bill “across the finish line.”
“Those two things are pretty essential to get this across the finish line and I’m a little disappointed, again, it was pulled off the table after we had agreements,” Harris continued. “So look, we’re gonna have to start new negotiating but time’s running out on this first effort and when it comes to the floor, it’s gonna fail. And hopefully it will fail in a way that keeps the negotiations and the bill alive, but it’s not going anywhere today.”
Johnson can only afford to lose three Republican votes assuming all members are present to vote. Republican Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina, who both voted “present” during the bill’s consideration on the House Budget Committee, are seen as crucial votes for allowing the package to advance to a floor-wide House vote.
Trump visited Capitol Hill Tuesday in an attempt to convince Republicans to advance the bill, where he took several stances on the SALT cap, Medicaid and other aspects of the legislation.
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