White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles told Republicans senators at a closed-door lunch meeting Wednesday afternoon that President Donald Trump expects the “big, beautiful” bill to be on his desk by July 4.
The White House’s ambitious timeline for the president’s budget package comes as senators are still hammering out details to thorny provisions, including reforms to Medicaid and green energy tax breaks — and a diverse cohort of House members are suggesting that Senate proposals are dead-on-arrival in their chamber. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who is racing to pass a bill by the end of next week, has floated holding a vote on the president’s landmark bill as early as next Wednesday.
“Get it done next week,” Republican North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer told reporters regarding Wiles’ message to senators. “She didn’t leave much room.”
Republican Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin told reporters that passing the bill as soon as possible is a “high priority” for the president and that administration officials are working closely with the Senate to get the legislation across the finish line.
Though Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy acknowledged the challenges to meeting the July 4 deadline, he argued that Senate GOP leadership is right to move at a swift pace and that some holdouts will ultimately have to compromise for a bill to clear the upper chamber.
“The Senate loves deadlines, and what we really like is the whooshing sound they make when they just go right by when we don’t achieve them. It’s going to be very difficult,” Kennedy said. “You don’t get something done around here by talking it to death and by trying to make everybody happy.”
“Some people are going to have to settle for a ham and egg sandwich without the ham,” Kennedy added. “That’s just the way it is.”
Thune can spare just three Republican votes assuming all Democratic senators are present and oppose the president’s landmark bill. The Louisiana Republican predicted the tax and spending bill would lose only two GOP votes.
The two Republican “no” votes are expected to be Rand Paul of Kentucky and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.
Paul, who frequently votes against GOP spending bills, has pledged to vote against the legislation, citing a provision to hike the debt ceiling by $5 trillion.
Johnson, a leading deficit hawk, has refused to support the president’s budget package, arguing the bill fails to slash enough spending to not add to budget deficits. The Wisconsin Republican is also calling for a return to pre-pandemic levels of spending, but has yet to find a “forcing mechanism” that would force Congress to adhere to spending restraint.
He told reporters Wednesday that July 4 is an “artificial deadline” and is urging Senate GOP leadership to delay a vote so lawmakers can study the fiscal impacts of the budget bill.
“We don’t have time to complete it by July 4 and get it right,” Johnson said.
Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who also argued that July 4th is not a “clear-cut” deadline, warned there’s “half a dozen” Republican Senators that still harbor doubts about the bill during a brief interview with reporters Wednesday.
“And so, you got to go by their wishes,” Tuberville said. “Don’t force [a vote], let it be the natural way of getting it passed, because it will eventually pass, but if somebody has concerns and they say, ‘I’m not voting on it right now,’ we don’t need to vote on it.”
Other Republican senators such as Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Jim Justice of West Virginia have concerns about the Senate’s reforms to Medicaid while Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and John Curtis of Utah have expressed unease about the proposal’s reforms to phase down certain green energy tax breaks enacted under former President Joe Biden.
“I think it’ll be difficult, but I think you got an awful lot of people pushing for [July 4th],” Justice said.
Republican North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven was optimistic that the budget bill could be done “on or before” next weekend if it moves to the floor by the midweek. He also praised Wiles’ communication with the Senate and her leadership in getting the budget bill through Congress.
“She’s really good. She comes in and gives input and she’s very responsive,” Hoeven said. “And people really, really like her.”
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