Johnson Lurches Toward Victory as Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Heads to the Floor

President Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” is one step closer to House passage, as a pivotal committee is poised to push the legislation to the floor. Early Wednesday morning, the Rules Committee began considering the legislation with little conservative pushback.The “big beautiful bill” had to go through a lengthy process to get to this point. More than a dozen committees were tasked with crafting their own bills, which would later be rolled into one piece of legislation that was approved by the Budget Committee after conservatives folded and let it pass. On Wednesday morning, the Rules Committee brought the final bill to its chambers. The panel convened its meeting at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, and included testimony from the top Republicans and Democrats on the Armed Services, Oversight, Budget, and Financial Services committees detailing their panels’ respective products. Only two deficit hawks on the Rules Committee — Congressmen Chip Roy and Ralph Norman — have so far said that the draft bill is not acceptable to them because of the trillions of dollars it is expected to add to the deficit. Democrats were even more infuriated than conservative Republicans on Wednesday, saying that the bill will do nothing to make life more affordable. Medicaid has become a centerpiece of the reconciliation bill fight, as deficit hawks call for additional cuts to the cost-sharing scheme and work requirements. “What the hell are Republicans so afraid of? What the hell are you so scared of that you guys are holding this hearing at one o’clock in the morning?” the Democratic ranking member of the Rules Committee, Congressman Jim McGovern, asked in the middle of the night on Wednesday. “If Republicans are so proud of what is in this bill, then why are you trying to ram it through in the dead of night?”Speaker Johnson has scheduled a vote on the bill to take place on Wednesday, though that could very well be stalled if the delicate negotiations fall apart in the coming hours. Since the committees approved their respective spending and tax cuts, several conservatives have objected to the deficit projections that now show trillions of dollars being put on America’s credit card. On top of that, blue state lawmakers — mostly from New York — are urging the speaker to lift the State and Local Tax deduction cap. The limit currently sits at $10,000 and the New Yorkers have already rejected the plan to raise that to $40,000. After a meeting with the speaker on Tuesday afternoon, a leading member of the SALT caucus, Congressman Nick LaLota, told the Sun that progress had been made, though no numbers are yet set in stone. He described the conversations as “continuous.”“Fortunately, folks are finally talking on this issue,” Mr. LaLota says. “We talked numbers. I’m not sure if we can officially consider it an offer, but we did talk … better numbers than we [talked about] before.”Any changes made to the bill before it comes to the floor will come in the form of what is known as a “manager’s amendment.” That addition will have to be approved by the Rules Committee, and it will likely include a higher lift in the SALT cap as well as additional cuts to Medicaid funding for states and green energy subsidies. Mr. Johnson held several closed-door meetings with the various dissenting groups throughout the day on Tuesday, rushing between the House floor, his office conference room, and other private meetings to try to get everyone on the same page. He was in such a rush that he uncharacteristically took no questions at his Tuesday morning press conference because he had to get to a meeting with colleagues. The president himself made a trip to the Hill on Tuesday morning to try to twist arms and cobble together the votes so it can pass the House. According to several lawmakers in the room, Mr. Trump did little to change skeptics’ minds. At the meeting Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump spoke about his decision to accept a plane from Qatar as the new Air Force One, his demand that Medicaid not be touched, and his ongoing fight with Congressman Thomas Massie. At one point, Politico reported that Mr. Trump went directly at Congressman Mike Lawler — a Republican who primarily represents Rockland and Westchester counties just north of New York City. “I know your district better than you do, if you lose because of SALT you were going to lose anyway,” Mr. Trump reportedly said. Mr. Lawler emerged from that Tuesday morning meeting to reaffirm his opposition to the “big beautiful bill.”Deficit hawks were also unimpressed by Mr. Trump’s performance. The chairman of the Freedom Caucus, Congressman Andy Harris, told reporters that the White House and conservatives are still “a long ways away” from a deal. Mr. Harris and a leading member of the hardline conservative caucus, Mr. Roy, met with the speaker in his office for more than an hour on Tuesday morning to air their grievances. Mr. Johnson later said that he was trying to tie up “loose ends” with all his members so they could get the bill to the Senate. “We’ve got a number of loose ends to tie up, but they’re coming together well. We’re having deficit hawks and SALT caucus and other constituencies all working together right now,” Mr. Johnson told reporters Tuesday afternoon after meeting with a small bloc of members on the House floor. “We’re using my conference room, other conference rooms, and are having very constructive dialogue and conversations.”

Johnson Lurches Toward Victory as Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Heads to the Floor

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