Republican opposition to the GOP’s “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill appeared to be softening Wednesday night after President Donald Trump and White House budget director Russ Vought spent hours meeting with party holdouts during procedural votes that party leaders held open.
House leaders have no desire to change the contents of the Senate-passed bill, which would force a second Senate vote and blow a self-imposed July Fourth deadline. But administration officials are hoping to ease the concerns of opponents by promising fixes that could be enacted either through executive actions or through a second reconciliation or appropriations bill later this year, lawmakers said.
The talks, which were ongoing, appeared to be making progress, as several House members who had voiced outright opposition to the Senate bill began softening their tone — and in one case, flipping from a previous “no” vote.
Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, was one of two House Republicans to oppose the earlier version of the bill passed by the House in May, citing deficit-spending concerns. But he said Wednesday he would support the more expensive Senate-passed bill.
“This bill isn’t perfect, but it’s the best we’ll get & includes major wins,” he wrote on the social platform X, citing border security, a “pro-growth tax policy,” Medicaid work requirements and more — most of which were part of the initial House bill.
Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, chairman of the hard-line Freedom Caucus who had vowed to oppose the bill, was asked Wednesday after meeting with Vought whether he heard anything that could change his mind. “No, not yet, but the evening is still young,” he said, adding that a floor vote later Wednesday was “a possibility.”
Texas Rep. Chip Roy, another Freedom Caucus holdout, said he was still upset about the Senate stripping out provisions that would penalize states that provide health care coverage to undocumented immigrants and a ban on gender-affirming care in Medicaid. Those provisions were removed after the Senate parliamentarian advised they would violate the so-called Byrd rule that restricts what can be included in a reconciliation bill.
“We’re trying to understand what’s possible in terms of language changes,” Roy said. “The Senate failed. We got to figure out … what are the options at each stage of this.”
Roy said he wanted to hear more about what could be addressed through administration clawbacks of federal funding known as rescissions, including a “pocket rescission” pushed by Vought that would claw back money within 45 days of the end of the fiscal year, giving Congress no real opportunity to object. He said he also wanted to know what could be accomplished in a future reconciliation package.
“There’s lots of possibilities that we continue to work with,” Roy said.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters late Wednesday, “we’re gonna get there tonight. We’re working on it and very, very positive about our progress.”
Debate stalled
Until those concerns are addressed, House leaders brought business to a halt on the floor so they could work on locking down the votes needed. A vote on an amendment to the rule governing floor debate on the bill, needed to fix a drafting error, was held open for over four hours as House leaders and administration officials worked on winning over holdouts.
It appeared to be one of the longest votes held open in modern House history, behind a November 2021 rule vote on Democrats’ bill that eventually became the 2022 climate and health care reconciliation package known as the “Inflation Reduction Act.”
Concerns about the bill came from both wings of the House GOP conference.
Fiscal hawks worried about the growing price tag of the measure, which the Congressional Budget Office adjusted upward Tuesday by $110 billion, to a new estimate of $3.4 trillion over 10 years, after changes made by the Senate. That included roughly $18 billion worth of clean-energy tax credit rollbacks that were slightly eased by the Senate’s “wraparound” amendment, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
And party moderates worried about the impact spending cuts would have on Medicaid, as the CBO warned that millions of Americans would lose health insurance.
Trump was meeting with members of the Freedom Caucus as well as party moderates at the White House earlier on Wednesday, before his budget director went up to Capitol Hill.
“The president is the best closer in the business, and he got a lot of members to yes in that meeting,” said Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., who attended the meeting at the White House Wednesday. “He is hour by hour moving members in the right direction.”
Rep. Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., declined to comment after meeting with Vought. But he seemed pleased with the direction of the talks, and suggested he planned to be home for Independence Day with his family rather than stuck in Washington.
“You see the big smile on my face?” Brecheen said. “I’m happy.”
‘All we need are four’
Conservatives bucking Trump on the bill could face primary campaigns; the clearest example of that is Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., whom Trump went after on social media for his vote against the motion to proceed in that chamber. The next day, Tillis announced his retirement.
For GOP moderates, the bigger danger is being toppled by Democrats in their swing districts, a fact the House Democratic leadership hammered home on Wednesday.
Speaking at a rally outside the Capitol on Wednesday morning, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and a succession of his Democratic colleagues called out specific Republicans facing potentially tough reelection races, citing statistics of how many people would lose Medicaid coverage and food stamp benefits.
“Every single House Democrat will stand up for your health care . . . and stand against massive tax breaks for GOP billionaire donors. And that is why every single House Democrat will vote ‘hell no’ against this one big ugly bill,” Jeffries said. “All we need are four House Republicans to join us in defense of their constituents who will suffer under this bill.”
Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., a Senate candidate and ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee, pointed to the Senate-passed bill’s removal of a House-passed exemption for veterans from food stamp work requirements. She called it a “betrayal” of veterans, adding “we just need four patriots in the Republican Party” to oppose the bill and kill the proposal.
Speaking later on the floor, Rules ranking member Jim McGovern, D-Mass., railed against the rule’s one-hour limit on floor debate, arguing lawmakers and the public haven’t had time to read the Senate-passed text.
He cited a tax break for Alaskan whaling captains GOP leaders added for Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and a provision to curb deductions for gambling losses.
The Senate bill would raise taxes on gamblers an estimated $1.1 billion over a decade by limiting deductions to 90 percent of their losses — which could lead to taxes on nonexistent winnings even if someone breaks even over the course of the year.
Jessie Hellmann and Paul M. Krawzak contributed to this report.
