Conservative House Republicans are throwing the future of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill into doubt following its successful passage in the Senate on Tuesday morning.
Some members of the House’s conservative flank immediately declared the Senate-amended tax and immigration bill dead on arrival in the lower chamber, citing the Senate’s failure to adhere to a budget framework negotiated between House GOP leadership and fiscal hawks — and accelerate the termination of green energy tax credits. The GOP lawmakers’ revolt threatens to put Speaker Mike Johnson’s fast-paced timeline and conservative House members’ deep objections to the Senate product on a collision course that could delay passage of the legislation before Trump’s self-imposed July 4 deadline.
“The problem is the swamp is gonna swamp,” Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy told the Blaze’s Glenn Beck on Tuesday, referring to the Senate’s bill. “Right now, we have a bill in my estimation that violates the House framework.”
“But more importantly, [the bill] would add significantly to the deficits,” Roy added. “I look at the math and I look at how you factor in economic growth which I’m doing, factor in revenues and expenditures and what we’re doing on mandatory saving which is not enough.”
The vocal concerns of conservative lawmakers has not stopped House GOP leadership from moving at a breakneck pace to pass the president’s domestic policy bill before Friday.
Members of the influential House Rules Committee are currently meeting to lay the groundwork to pass the Senate-amended bill on the House floor. Though the Senate product is expected to pass the rules panel, it could face trouble on the House floor.
Johnson can afford to lose just three votes given House Republicans’ 220-212 majority.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has argued his conference pushed the initial House bill in a more conservative direction with reforms to Medicaid and moving up the phase down of certain green energy subsidies.
“I appreciate the narrow margins they have over there and the challenges the speaker and his team have in front of them, but I think we gave them a really strong product,” Thune said following the successful vote Thursday. “I think we took what they sent us and strengthened, improved upon it.”
House GOP leadership has also signaled that they intend for their conference to quickly approve the bill with no changes before July 4. Johnson, however, conceded to reporters that he’s “not happy with what the Senate did to our [initial] product” Tuesday afternoon.
The president called upon House Republicans to unite behind the legislative centerpiece of his second term and quickly send it to his desk for signature, in a post on the social media platform Truth Social following the Senate’s vote.
“We can have all of this right now, but only if the House GOP UNITES, ignores its occasional ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ (You know who you are!), and does the right thing, which is sending this Bill to my desk,” Trump wrote. “We are on schedule — Let’s keep it going, and be done before you and your family go on a July 4thvacation.”
“To my GOP friends in the House: Stay UNITED, have fun, and Vote ‘YAY.’ GOD BLESS YOU ALL!” Trump added.
A senior White House official reinforced the president’s view that no changes to the bill are needed and must pass the House in advance of July 4.
The official told the Daily Caller News Foundation that they expect the Senate product to be reported out of the House rules panel favorably. The White House official also stated their opposition to sending the president’s bill to a conference committee to hammer out remaining sticking points between the two chambers due to Democrats’ expected involvement in the process.
Congressional Republicans are using the so-called budget reconciliation process to specifically steer around Democrats’ opposition and pass GOP-backed legislation by a simple majority vote.
Conservative House lawmakers’ concerns with the Senate bill were well-known before the Senate passed its budget package following more than 24 hours of deliberations Tuesday.
Multiple members of the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) told the DCNF last week they would not support the draft Senate bill, citing an array of substantive concerns with the proposal.
“We [will] just play a game of hide and seek and kick it back,” Republican South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, told the DCNF Thursday, referring to a scenario during which the Senate passes legislation that increases deficit spending or fails to terminate green energy tax credits. “The bill we sent over there has got to come back, in large part, like it is or improve it.”
Norman sits on the House Rules panel and is an HFC member.
Despite all but three conservative GOP lawmakers ultimately supporting the initial House draft of the president’s “big, beautiful” bill in May, Norman predicted a different scenario would play out upon the House reconsidering the bill.
“This is different than any other time,” Norman reflected.
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