Washington — The House is planning to vote on the Senate-passed version of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” as soon as Wednesday morning, though a sizable contingent of Republican critics could still sink the legislation.
The measure narrowly survived the Senate after a marathon session ended with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote Tuesday.
The House Rules Committee was quick to take up the legislation Tuesday afternoon, hoping to tee it up for a vote on the House floor by the morning.
But first GOP leaders will have to win over Republicans who are opposed to the changes the Senate made to the bill that the House passed in May. The Senate’s steeper cuts to Medicaid are likely to irritate moderates while the higher price tag could alienate conservatives. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Senate bill would add $3.3 trillion to federal deficits over the next 10 years.
“We got more work to do, but it’s going to get done,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters as Congress scrambles to meet a self-imposed Fourth of July deadline to get the bill to Mr. Trump.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, said the lower chamber would vote on the Senate bill as-is. If the House makes changes of its own, the Senate would need to sign off on those as well, creating another hurdle to final passage. Mr. Trump has threatened to support primary challengers to Republicans who vote against the bill.
Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas is a member of the Rules Committee who has been highly critical of both versions but ultimately voted to pass the House bill in May, which passed by one vote. He said Tuesday afternoon he was not inclined to the support the Senate version.
“I think the odds are a hell of a lot lower than they were even 48 hours ago or 72 hours ago based on the deal-cutting that I just saw,” Roy said about hitting Friday’s deadline.
Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, another member on the panel who also eventually folded and supported the House bill, called on the lower chamber to go back to the drawing board.
“What the Senate did is unconscionable,” Norman said at the House Rules meeting. “What the Senate did, I’ll vote against it here and I’ll vote against it on the floor.”
Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee called the Senate bill a “dud.” Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona said it’s hard to see how the bill passes “as-is” because “there’s some amazingly bad stuff” in the measure.
Johnson acknowledged that the Senate “went a little further” than many House GOP members would have preferred and expected that the Rules Committee would be working late into the night to prepare it for a floor vote.
Jaala Brown and Lucy Curtis-Cherry contributed to this report.