WASHINGTON — Republican leaders are pushing to get President Donald Trump’s massive budget bill through the House by the end of this week — but the details of the 1,000-page bill are still not finalized.
The megabill is made up of 11 individual bills advanced by House committees over the last month that were later combined by the House Budget Committee over the weekend. The package seeks to advance Trump’s priorities on a number of issues, although details on certain provisions have been meticulously debated over the last several weeks.
“From the outset of the budget reconciliation process, we have sought to enact President Trump’s full agenda, not just parts of it, and that’s why we call it the one big, beautiful bill — because really, everything is sandwiched into this,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on Tuesday. “There’s a lot of it, because we had to, because after the last four years, everything was an absolute disaster.”
The budget resolution combines Trump’s priorities on energy, border security and national defense while also extending $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that are scheduled to expire by the end of the year.
The comprehensive budget resolution touches on several of Trump’s top priorities, with several garnering party-wide support — while others are still up in the air.
“I was on the phone with a Utahn last week who asked me, ‘Why does it have to be so big?’ And the answer is: For the same reason it’s so beautiful,” Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, told reporters on Tuesday. “This is how we’re delivering the economy that we promised in November.”
Here’s a breakdown of some of the biggest issues tucked inside the package — and what was stripped out.
Tax cuts in ‘big, beautiful bill’
The main portion of the bill consists of extended tax cuts for American families and businesses.
Some of the most significant tax cuts in the bill include the elimination of taxes on tips, taxes on overtime and a provision that would make auto loan interest tax deductible for most taxpayers. The bill would also include more tax relief for middle- and low-income seniors.
The framework would make some of the tax cuts originally passed in Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) permanent before they expire at the end of the year. In doing so, the bill halts an estimated $1,700 tax increase for working families that would kick in if the tax cuts were not extended.
The bill would temporarily increase the child tax credit by $500, raising it from the $2,000 set in TCJA to $2,500.
“If we don’t get this bill done, there will be a significant tax increase on every American and every business across the country,” Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, told reporters on Tuesday. “And so what we’re doing here is taking a look at 2017 and saying, ‘What was so productive about that?’ That created a lot of strong economic growth, and we’re going to make that permanent. That’s getting missed in all the conversations.”
The bill would also seek to increase deduction caps for state and local taxes paid, also known as SALT, although a final number is not yet known.
Republican leaders offered to increase the current deduction cap to $30,000 — up from the current $10,000 limit — and incorporate a new $400,000 income limit. However, New York Republicans rejected that deal, threatening to vote against the package altogether.
“What we’re doing here is making sure that (tax provisions are) consistent and permanent for the next generation of business owners and for the foreseeable future,” Moore said. “That cannot go unstated, and it cannot get bogged down in all the conversation that’s getting done about this bill and the effect that we’re gonna give the economy to the American worker and the American family.”
Medicaid reform
The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed its portion of the budget resolution implementing changes to Medicaid, the insurance program that covers nearly 80 million Americans.
One of the most significant changes proposed in the framework is to implement new work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries. The bill would require able-bodied adults without dependents to work at least 80 hours a month or complete some other activity such as community service.
The proposal carves out some exceptions, such as for pregnant women, and would only apply to those who are between 19 and 64 years old. Individual states would be responsible for enforcing those work hours.
The legislation would also include new restrictions on how Medicaid funds can be used, including bans on gender transition procedures for children under 18 as well as prohibitions on coverage for “for individuals whose citizenship, nationality, or immigration status has not been verified.”
With the proposed changes, Republicans on the committee are expected to secure more than $900 billion in savings, even higher than the original budget instructions.
But with those cuts in place, preliminary estimates predict at least 8.6 million people would lose their health insurance over the next decade with savings reaching at least $715 billion by 2034, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The proposal did leave out some initial demands to adjust the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, a formula that determines how much the federal government should pay for state Medicaid programs. In doing so, lawmakers sought spending cuts by transferring more of the costs to individual states.
That change was left off the final framework due to protests from a majority of the GOP conference.
Energy priorities
The framework would claw back funds from key green energy programs such as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a $27 billion fund that incentivizes the use of clean energy technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as the Methane Emissions Reduction Program, aimed at reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas industry.
The framework seeks to repeal portions of the Clean Air Act, which authorizes the EPA to establish national air quality standards and develop programs for states to maintain those levels.
Notably, the bill would aim to phase out several renewable energy tax credits over the next six years — a proposal that could be a sticking point for both clean energy friendly Republicans as well as conservatives who want the Inflation Reduction Act to be repealed in full immediately upon passage.
The package would also carve out a provision to sell about 11,000 acres of public lands in Utah’s Washington and Beaver counties, which was drafted upon request from county officials. By selling off the federally-owned lands, Maloy argued, it will help to reduce the national deficit and pay off the nation’s debt.
“This bill would boost Utah’s energy sector, restarting oil and gas and geothermal leases that not only make it so that we’re using our natural resources and creating jobs in my state, but preparing this country to meet the energy needs of the future and be energy dominant,” Maloy said.
SNAP, food assistance changes
The Agriculture Committee was tasked with finding $230 billion in spending cuts, with much of that coming from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Recent CBO projections show the committee exceeded that goal.
The package includes new work requirements, waivers, and other criteria for SNAP beneficiaries and would force states to pay more of the program’s administrative costs.
However, House GOP leaders made minor changes to those provisions earlier this week that would alter language barring immigrants from receiving SNAP benefits or tax credits. Instead, the bill would carve out exceptions for legal immigrants as well as Cuban nationals living in the country.
Border security
There are several changes to border security funding tucked into the package, including a handful of first-of-their-kind fees for immigrants seeking asylum in the United States.
The border section outlines a number of new immigration fees, including a minimum $1,000 application charge for asylum-seekers as well as a $1,000 fee for parolees. The bill would also establish a $3,500 fee for sponsors of unaccompanied children paired with a $2,500 penalty for sponsors who fail to appear in court.
The bill would implement fees for work permits for a slew of applicants, including asylum-seekers with pending cases, parolees, immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, immigrants with deferred enforced departure, and any applicants looking to extend or renew their employment authorization status.
The proposal contains several other proposed fees, such as a $500 application fee for Temporary Protected Status; $250 for visa overstays; $1,500 fee to adjust status to lawful permanent resident, also known as a green card; $100 annual fee while asylum applications remain pending; among others.
In addition to the new fees, the legislation would provide increased funding to agencies such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Executive Office for Immigration Review. Those funds would specifically be allocated toward expanding detention, deportations and enforcement staffing.
Additionally, the legislation would carve out another $68.8 billion in funding to go toward border wall construction, surveillance tools, updated facilities for the CBP, and more.