Welcome to Washington: Despite Setbacks, Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Is Well on Its Way To Becoming Law

For all of the coverage of President Trump’s “one big beautiful bill” and how the various provisions are dividing lawmakers in Congress, the legislation is well on its way to being signed into law, even if it takes longer than expected. Based on conversations between the Sun and several Republican lawmakers this week, it is clear they are dying to get to “yes.”Welcome to Washington, where this week Speaker Johnson faces a critical — though artificial — deadline to get the bill through the House. After killing the legislation in a key procedural hurdle in the Budget Committee on Friday, conservatives acquiesced and voted “present” on the bill on Sunday night, after citing “changes” that had been made in a handshake agreement with Republican leadership. “After a great deal of work and engagement over the weekend, the Budget Committee advanced a reconciliation bill that lays the foundation for much-needed tax relief, border security, and important spending reductions and reforms,” one of the lawmakers who voted “no” on Friday only to vote “present” on Sunday, Congressman Chip Roy, writes on X. Mr. Roy says the speaker won his vote by promising to move the Medicaid work requirement start date up from 2029, and to phase out green energy tax credits more quickly than originally planned. Mr. Roy was joined by Congressmen Ralph Norman, Josh Brecheen, and Andrew Clyde in changing their votes to present from no. Despite the acrimony of the last two weeks that has often spilled out into the open, Republicans are desperately trying to reach an agreement that can satisfy the requisite number of lawmakers. From Medicaid to the Green Energy tax credits to the State and Local Tax deduction, there has been sufficient progress made for optimism among GOP representatives. During a meeting in the basement of the Capitol this week, hundreds of Republican lawmakers gathered in an auditorium where the majority whip, Congressman Tom Emmer, ran a Q&A session. Committee leaders laid out what their panels had advanced in recent days, and members were given the opportunity to demand answers and voice concerns. It was a good sign for Mr. Johnson when one spending hawk, Congressman Rich McCormick, emerged from the meeting with a smile on his face. “I’m still waiting on the number crunching,” he told reporters. “But I think there’s a lot of great effort in there to do some very good savings. There’s still some minutiae that needs to be worked out.”“I think we’re getting close,” he said, flashing his teeth. Even the unofficial leader and spokesman for the blue state Republicans pushing for a higher SALT deduction cap, Congressman Nick LaLota, sounded relatively optimistic after emerging from the meeting. “We’re not farther, but we’re probably not closer, either. Still a lot of specifics that need to be hashed out,” Mr. LaLota told the press, seeming upbeat. While that may not sound like the world’s greatest endorsement, readers would be wise to remember that Mr. LaLota previously told the Sun that someone needed to “breathe some oxygen into this otherwise dead bill,” after the speaker rejected other demands from the self-described “SALT-y” Republicans. It is also important to keep in mind that Mr. Johnson’s deadline to get the legislation through the House this week is an artificial one. The speaker and his leadership team have said for weeks that they hope to send the bill to the Senate before the week-long Memorial Day recess that Congress will take beginning on Thursday. Even if that deadline is missed and there are countless headlines written about the failure of Mr. Johnson’s leadership, Republicans will have ample time to get a deal done. The only true priority for Mr. Johnson and Senator Thune is to get the bill to the president’s desk by mid-July, when America is due to breach its debt limit. If such an event were to take place, analysts from across the political spectrum have warned that a global financial crisis could ensue. A $4 trillion debt limit increase is currently included in the “one big beautiful bill,” which requires a simple-majority vote in both the House and Senate. If Mr. Trump’s signature piece of legislation is not signed by the “X date” of the debt limit default, then Republicans will be forced to work with Senator Schumer on a compromise. An up-or-down debt limit increase vote would require 60 votes to break a filibuster.

Welcome to Washington: Despite Setbacks, Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ Is Well on Its Way To Becoming Law

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