President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson mounted an aggressive pressure campaign and charm offensive Wednesday to get all Republicans on board with the Senate’s version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — as lawmakers were staring down the prospect of another long night at the office.
While Trump and Johnson (R-La.) could only afford three GOPers voting “no,” more than a dozen House Republicans — largely from the conservative Freedom Caucus — signaled opposition to the changes the Senate made and approved in a 51-50 vote Tuesday.
Even the speaker indicated he wasn’t thrilled about the sales job before him, telling reporters: “I’m not happy with what the Senate did to our product.
“We understand this is the process,” he added. “It goes back and forth, and we’ll be working to get all of our members to yes.”
Wednesday morning, Trump welcomed a handful of members to the White House for a meeting lasting approximately two hours, underscoring his desire to have the bill on his desk by Friday’s July 4 holiday.
“I feel very positive about the progress. We’ve had lots of great conversations,” Johnson told reporters after that meeting. “I feel good about where we are and where we’re headed. Stay tuned.”
“The president was wonderful, as always, informative, funny, told me he likes seeing me on TV — which is kinda cool,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) gushed after the gathering. “The president answered all of our questions, was very informative.”
Fiscal hawks have been wary about calculations that the bill will increase the federal deficit by at least $3.3 trillion over the next decade.
With the bill in limbo Wednesday, the House Freedom Caucus sent around a three-page memo laying out the changes they want made.
“I just still think the math is off. I think it violates the [budget] framework,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told The Post on his way to Wednesday’s White House meeting.
“I think that the deficits are too high. I’m sympathetic to the idea of economic growth, being able to adjust some of that,” he added. “I think we need more spending restraint.”
Moderate Republicans have expressed unease about aggressive reforms to Medicaid as they prepare to face a skeptical electorate next year.
“So much of what the Senate did is just turned back to the policy limitations that existed under the Obama era,” explained Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) after the White House meeting broke up. “Nobody was calling Obama evil for having common sense limits on abuses around provider taxes and state directed payments.
“Once members understood that Medicaid outlays had doubled in the last 5 years and some of the policy abuses that have caused that, members got a lot more comfortable.”
The House passed its own version of the Big Beautiful Bill May 22 in a 215-214 vote.
Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) were the two GOP “nay” votes, while Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) voted “present.”
Massie has been the most outspoken foe of the legislation, drawing Trump’s wrath and vow to defeat him in a primary next year.
“Everybody knows I’m a ‘no,’ so they’re just putting me in the ‘no’ category, and then everybody else has to decide what they’re going to do,” Massie told reporters.
In addition to the legislative wrangling, Wednesday’s planned vote was held up to wait on House members who were late returning to DC following a series of Tuesday night thunderstorms that snarled travel up and down the East Coast.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is intended to be Trump’s signature legislative achievement of his second term by extending his 2017 tax cuts, most of which were set to expire by the end of the year; bolstering border security and defense spending; and cutting other discretionary spending.
