House Republicans barely managed to advance President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” Sunday evening, but some of the same lawmakers who made that happen insist they still have issues with the massive measure.
“The bill does not yet meet the moment – leaving almost half of the ‘Green New Scam’ subsidies continuing. More, it fails to end the Medicaid money laundering scam,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), one of four Republicans on the House Budget Committee who enabled the bill to clear the panel by voting “present.”
“This all ultimately increases the likelihood of continuing deficits and non-Obamacare-expansion states like Texas expanding in the future,” he added. “We can and must do better before we pass the final product.”
“Yes, we’re moving up Medicaid work requirements. Yes, we’re putting an end to the Green New Scam subsidies. There are several bites at the apple, but more to be done,” added another “present” voter, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC).
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wants the House to vote on final passage by the end of this week. However, debate over additional Medicaid reforms and capping state and local tax (SALT) deductions threaten to doom the measure.
The next big test for the bill is a 1 a.m. Wednesday meeting of the House Rules Committee. If that goes well, a vote on final passage will take place Thursday or Friday.
With a 220-213 House majority, Republicans can only afford three defections if there’s full attendance.
Over the weekend, GOP leadership made concessions to Roy, Norman and two other fiscal hawks — Andrew Clyde of Georgia and Josh Brecheen of Georgia — by agreeing to implement work requirements for Medicaid in early 2027, rather than 2029 as an early draft of the bill had it.
“We are talking to all those members,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday when asked if moderates could go along with that. “Everybody knew this was something that we were working on.”
During the call with rank-and-file lawmakers Monday morning, GOP leadership underscored that elements of the bill’s text are still in flux amid last minute negotiations ahead of the Rules Committee meeting.
Perhaps the biggest sticking point that has yet to be resolved is SALT. The current text of the bill raises the SALT cap, currently at $10,000, to $30,000 on taxable annual income of $400,000 or fewer.
Johnson has been negotiating with Republicans from states like New York, New Jersey and California who are demanding a higher cap. So far a solution has proven elusive.
“We’re still in negotiations with the Speaker and leadership in the White House on lifting the cap on SALT further than is outlined in the bill,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) told Fox Business Network’s “Mornings With Maria” Monday.
“I suspect we will have made some progress today into tomorrow,” he added. “Failure is not an option here. We all understand that there’s going to need to be compromises.”
Johnson had originally set Memorial Day as his target deadline for getting the mammoth bill through the House and has signaled a willingness to keep lawmakers in DC over the holiday weekend, if necessary.
Should the bill clear the House, it will then need to get through the Senate, where GOP Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Josh Hawley of Missouri have expressed reservations — with the latter taking issue with Medicaid reforms.
“I hope that there are no major rewrites of the bill,” Scalise told CNBC Monday. “We’ve been talking with the Senate every step of the way.”
“They’ve got ultra-fiscal conservatives. They’ve got moderates in the Senate. I think they’re going to run into some of the same dilemmas we had, which is how we struck a balance — we struck a very delicate balance in this bill.”
