House Republicans are contemplating speedy passage of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” if the Senate can finish the legislation by the end of this week.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told GOP lawmakers at Tuesday’s conference meeting to remain “flexible” if the House needs to stay in session past the weekend, when Senate Republicans are expected to clear their version of the bill.
The White House has previously signaled that the legislation could get through the Senate by July 4, with a compromise bill on Trump’s desk before the August recess. However, Johnson told reporters Tuesday that the House could abbreviate its July 4 break to wrap up the entire process.
“If the Senate does its work on the timeline that we expect, we will do our work as well, and I think everybody’s ready for that,” Johnson said.
There are major obstacles to meeting the July 4 deadline. Republicans are still getting rulings from the Senate parliamentarian that force committees to abandon or rewrite provisions that do not comply with the filibuster-skirting rules of budget reconciliation.
At the same time, Republicans are still trying to find a compromise that pleases fiscal hawks and a bloc of centrists concerned about the bill’s Medicaid reforms.
Johnson told reporters he had been involved in those negotiations, citing “ad nauseam” conversations with individual senators who, according to him, were still going through the “five stages of grief” on their preferred legislative changes. Trump has also begun to get involved, hosting a group of fiscal hawks at the White House on Monday.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has been intimately involved in crafting the tax portion details of the bill, will attend the Senate GOP lunch on Tuesday, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The Senate changes to the bill have fanned conservative upset in the House, in particular provisions that would “water down” food stamp reforms and a rollback of green energy tax credits that passed the House last month.
The SALT Caucus rejected a compromise to the state and local tax deduction proposed by Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), the lead Senate SALT negotiator, in a conference call last week.
Still, Johnson downplayed the gulf between the House and Senate bills, denying Monday that the Senate’s legislation was a “vastly different product.”
THUNE RUNS INTO ‘BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL’ TIME CRUNCH AHEAD OF JULY 4 DEADLINE
His accelerated timeline came as Trump called on senators to “lock yourself in a room” to get the bill to his desk.
“Don’t go home, and GET THE DEAL DONE THIS WEEK. Work with the House so they can pick it up, and pass it, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump said on Truth Social. “NO ONE GOES ON VACATION UNTIL IT’S DONE.”