WASHINGTON — House Republican leadership is pressing ahead toward a vote on landmark legislation that would codify President Trump’s agenda this week, the first major push to pass Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” since he resumed office.
The bill would overhaul the tax code and extend many of the tax cuts passed during Trump’s first term, while increasing spending on defense and border security — costly policies that would be offset by new work requirements and conditions on Medicaid, cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, and the phasing out of green energy tax credits.
Success is far from guaranteed for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who is navigating negotiations with fiscal conservatives and coastal moderates within his caucus to secure enough votes within his razor-thin majority. But the bill did take one procedural step forward Sunday night, clearing the bill through the House Budget Committee in a rare weekend vote.
Four members of that committee voted “present,” and have not committed to ultimately vote in favor of the bill. Those four alone — Freedom Caucus members Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Ralph Norman of South Carolina — are enough to sink the bill in a final floor vote.
More moderate Republican lawmakers from states like California, New York and New Jersey, where residents face higher state and local taxes than in much of the rest of the country, are pushing for an increase in the state and local tax deduction cap, known as SALT, to be included in the bill — a provision that is opposed by the Freedom Caucus. They also are pushing back against efforts to wind down green energy tax credits that are popular with their constituents.
The Congressional Budget Office issued a preliminary estimate that new conditions to Medicaid coverage built into the bill would result in at least 7.6 million people losing health insurance by 2034. The CBO has yet to release a full assessment of the bill’s effect on the debt and deficit.
Johnson has said that the bill will go to the House Rules Committee on Tuesday or Wednesday. He then aims to put the bill to a vote on the House floor on Thursday.
The White House has been involved in the negotiations in recent days.
“Passing this bill is what voters sent Republicans to Washington to accomplish,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Monday. “That’s why it’s essential that every Republican in the House and Senate unites behind President Trump to pass this popular and transformative legislative package.”
Even if Johnson succeeds in passing the legislation, the bill will then move to a Senate filled with Republicans who have expressed skepticism of the House legislation.
“Not only myself, but a number of us in the Senate have been very clear: We have to reduce the deficit,” Republican Sen. John Curtis of Utah said in an interview with CNN. Asked if he wants serious changes to the House bill, Curtis said, “Yes.”
Earlier in the week, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri said the House bill represented “real Medicaid benefit cuts” that he would not vote for.
“I can’t support that,” Hawley said. “No Republican should support that. We’re the party of the working class. We need to act like it.”
In a statement on social media Monday, Johnson called the bill a “once in a generation opportunity to help restore our economy to greatness.”
“The One Big Beautiful Bill Act will bring the historic relief and prosperity President Trump and Congressional Republicans promised the American people,” he said.