WASHINGTON — Negotiations between Republican leaders and House conservatives appeared to fall apart overnight, threatening President Donald Trump’s massive budget framework just hours before party leaders hoped to bring it to the floor for a vote.
Members of the conservative Freedom Caucus said they would not support the current budget framework if it comes to the floor on Wednesday, but told reporters talks are ongoing with White House officials to broker a deal.
“The White House offered a proposal late last night that I think fulfills ... what the president talked about,” Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., said. “ And there’s a broad agreement with the House Freedom Caucus that if that’s included in the package, I think that there is a pathway forward that we can see. But again, the leadership will have to figure out what the time frame of this is.”
Freedom Caucus members did not disclose details of any tentative deal, but said it had to do with finding “waste, fraud, and abuse” within Medicaid — a major sticking point for the conservative group.
However, White House officials pushed back against those characterizations, arguing they did not extend an offer but rather outlined possible paths forward. Still, the Trump administration is pushing to pass the bill as soon as possible, aligning themselves with GOP leadership who wants to vote on the framework on Wednesday night, White House officials told the Deseret News.
Members of the Freedom Caucus are set to meet with the White House on Wednesday afternoon alongside House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to continue talks, sources familiar with the plan told the Deseret News.
Meanwhile, the White House is pressuring the conservative lawmakers to fold, claiming it would be the “ultimate betrayal” not to pass Trump’s agenda as soon as possible.
“This bill implements critical aspects of President Trump’s budgetary agenda by delivering bigger paychecks for Americans, driving massive economic growth, unleashing American energy, strengthening border security and national defense, preserving key safety net programs for Americans who need them, while ending waste, fraud, and abuse in Federal spending, and much more,” the White House wrote in a letter to lawmakers. “If H.R. 1 were presented to the President, he would sign it into law.”
The 11th-hour revolt comes as the House Rules Committee debates the framework, the final step before the megabill can come to the floor for a vote. The committee convened at 1 a.m. EDT on Wednesday and was still dragging on well into the late morning as lawmakers awaited final bill text incorporating key changes to tax reform and Medicaid spending.
The lack of bill text angered Democrats on the committee, who accused Republicans of strong-arming Trump’s agenda without allowing lawmakers to review the changes.
“You guys can force us to debate this bill in the dead of night. You can do it while the country sleeps. But the American people will wake up tomorrow morning, and I guarantee you they will wake up to how terrible your agenda is,” Rules Ranking Member Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said in his opening remarks. “This is a farce and outrageous insult to the people of this country to bring up a 1,000-page bill at 1:00 in the morning — a bill that’s still being written, by the way, by Republicans as we speak in the back rooms somewhere.”
The rebellion comes even after Trump made an in-person plea to House Republicans on Tuesday, urging them to drop their specific demands and get a start on enacting his agenda. That boosted GOP leadership’s message to hardliners to accept current deals on the table, arguing everyone will need to sacrifice some demands.
“President Trump communicated that the bill is written extremely well and we shouldn’t let perfect be the enemy of really good,” Rep. Blake Moore, R-Utah, told the Deseret News on Tuesday. “He reinforced that if we quibble over the remaining pieces, we may end up with a huge tax hike on hardworking Americans. I’ve been an advocate for even more spending cuts, but if that means that we don’t complete this legislation, it’ll all be for nothing.”
GOP leaders hope to finalize the bill and bring it to the floor for a vote as early as Wednesday evening, although that could be delayed depending on how many Republicans threaten to vote against the package.
Because of Republicans’ slim majority, they can only lose three lawmakers’ support, assuming full attendance and all Democrats vote against the measure. GOP leaders already have one solid no: Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who has said he would not vote for the bill in any form because it doesn’t reduce the nation’s deficit.
Meanwhile, Johnson managed to strike a tentative deal with blue-state Republicans to amend the bill to include higher federal deductions for state and local taxes paid, also known as SALT. That group is a separate faction who threatened to tank the bill if certain demands weren’t met.
Republican leaders offered to increase the current deduction cap to $40,000 — up from the current $10,000 limit — for individuals who make $500,000 or less a year. That cap would then increase by 1% every year over the next decade and remain permanent after that period.
The policy mostly affects high-tax states, but the changes were made to appease a group of blue-state Republicans who repeatedly threatened final passage if a higher deductible was not included.
However, that agreement has angered fiscal hawks within the conservative House Freedom Caucus, who have long opposed changes to the SALT cap.
“I think actually we’re further away from a deal because of that SALT cap increase, I think, upset a lot of conservatives,” Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told Newsmax Wednesday morning. “The conservatives are pushing for some balancing spending reductions.”