The White House on Monday called on Congress to advance legislation enacting Donald Trump’s tax and spending priorities, hours after House Republican leadership reached an agreement with far-right holdouts to pass the bill through a crucial committee and closer to a vote by the full chamber.
Progress of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act unexpectedly stalled last week after four rightwing Republicans prevented its passage through the House budget committee. The move raised the prospect that it would not be able to pass the full chamber before the Memorial Day deadline set by the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson.
But the holdouts dropped their opposition and allowed it to pass through the committee late Sunday evening. In a press briefing on Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called on lawmakers to work swiftly to send the bill to Trump’s desk.
“The America-first policies in this bill are the reason why Republicans currently have the majority in Congress right now. Passing this bill is what voters sent Republicans to Washington to accomplish, and that’s why it’s essential that every Republican in the House and the Senate unites behind President Trump and passes this popular and essential legislative package,” Leavitt said.
It remains unclear if the bill has the support needed to win approval by the full House, where the GOP can afford no more than three defections. The changes proposed to ameliorate rightwing Republicans run the risk of alienating moderates in the party wary of dismantling climate-focused incentives enacted under Joe Biden, and of targeting the federal program providing healthcare to poor and disabled Americans. And the conservatives who held it up in the budget committee signaled they remain wary of the bill.
“The bill does not yet meet the moment,” said Chip Roy, a Texas lawmaker and member of the far-right Freedom Caucus, who was among those holding up its passage in the budget committee. “We can and must do better before we pass the final product.”
It falls to Johnson to unite the Republican party’s disparate factions to pass Trump’s top domestic priority, which would extend tax breaks enacted during the president’s first term and pump money into border security and deportations – all while cutting spending.
“I’m looking forward to very thoughtful discussions, very productive discussions over the next few days, and I’m absolutely convinced we’re going to get this in final form and pass it,” Johnson said on Sunday evening.
Republicans criticizing the measure argued that the bill’s new spending and the tax cuts take effect quickly, while the measures to offset the cost take years to kick in. They demanded that new work requirements Republicans want to enact for able-bodied participants in Medicaid take effect sooner.
Johnson indicated he wants to impose the work requirements “as soon as possible” but acknowledged it may take states longer to change their systems. Under the current bill, those requirements would not kick in until 2029.
More talks are ahead, but Johnson is looking to put the bill on the House floor before the end of the week.
Democrats have decried the cuts Republicans are proposing to Medicaid and food stamps to offset the costs of the tax breaks.
“This spending bill is terrible, and I think the American people know that,” said Jim Clyburn, a Democrat from South Carolina, to CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “There is nothing wrong with us bringing the government in balance. But there is a problem when that balance comes on the back of working men and women. And that’s what is happening here.”
Rightwing lawmakers continue to press their case that US spending must be addressed. Ralph Norman, the South Carolina representative who joined with Roy, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Andrew Clyde of Georgia to vote against the bill last Friday, pointed to a recent downgrade of the nation’s credit rating in making his arguments for steeper reductions.
“We’ve got a lot more work to do,” said Norman, who together with the other budget committee holdouts voted “present” on the bill Sunday evening. “We’re excited about what we did. We want to move the bill forward.”
At its core, the sprawling legislative package permanently extends the existing income tax cuts that Republicans approved in 2017 and adds temporary new ones that the president campaigned on in 2024, including no taxes on tips , overtime pay and auto loan interest payments. The measure also proposes big spending increases for border security and defense.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a non-partisan fiscal watchdog group, estimates that the House bill is shaping up to add roughly $3.3tn to the debt over the next decade.
In addition to balancing the concerns of centrists and the far-right, Johnson also has to deal with Republican lawmakers from New York and elsewhere who are demanding a much larger state and local tax deduction.
