WASHINGTON — Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is pushing his colleagues to further scrutinize the contents of President Donald Trump’s massive tax package before combining all of their proposed tax provisions for a final vote.
Lee was one of five Senate Republicans to sign on to a letter led by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., requesting a conference meeting to go through “provision by provision, score by score, and vote on what to leave in and what to leave out,” according to the Washington Examiner.
Lee confirmed to the Deseret News his name was attached to the letter. However, Johnson later said the meeting was rejected.
The letter comes as Republican leaders told senators behind closed doors that reconciliation text could be finalized on Friday evening, with voting expected to begin as early as noon on Saturday.
After text is finished, the Senate must vote on a motion to proceed, which would then open the floor to 20 hours of debate evenly divided on both sides — although it’s unlikely to take that long as Republicans could yield their 10-hour portion to accelerate the process.
Once debate is complete, senators will be permitted to introduce an unlimited number of amendments, resulting in an hourslong process colloquially known as a vote-a-rama.
Still, even with plans to proceed as early as Saturday afternoon, crucial details about the bill have not yet been negotiated — leaving the fate of the package uncertain.
There remain several outstanding disagreements on key changes made by the Senate on Medicaid, green energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, and other tax-related measures.
One of the biggest issues holding up progress on the bill is the proposed expansion of federal deductions for state and local taxes paid, also known as SALT. A handful of House Republicans representing districts in blue states spent weeks pushing for language to increase the current deduction cap to $40,000 for individuals who make $500,000 or less a year. The cap would then increase by 1% every year over the next decade and remain permanent after that period.
However, that proposal was soundly rejected by their GOP counterparts in the Senate, resulting in a weekslong standoff between the two chambers that has yet to be settled.
One of the deals currently being negotiated would be to accept the $40,000 SALT cap for five years, but then return it to the current $10,000 cap for five years after that. It’s not yet clear whether red-state Republicans will accept that deal — or if that will end up being in the final bill.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters on Friday after meeting with Senate Republicans they were “very, very close” on a SALT deal, although he declined to share any details of what that may be.
Meanwhile, the future of Lee’s public land sales proposal is also unclear after his original language was struck down by the Senate parliamentarian earlier this week. Lee has since submitted a new proposal, reducing the amount of federally owned land that would be eligible for sale, but the parliamentarian hasn’t issued a new decision.
Tobias Peter, a senior fellow and codirector of the Housing Center released a map Friday of the land that would be available under Lee’s new plan. He said the plan would “significantly reduce” the housing shortage in the West and would bring around $15 billion into the government’s coffers.
Even with the text not finalized, including Lee’s proposal, Republican leaders are adamant they will pass the bill and get it to Trump’s desk by the Fourth of July, a deadline top Republicans set for themselves earlier this year.
However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged the plan to begin voting on Saturday was mostly “aspirational.”
“We’ve got a few things we’re waiting on from the parliamentarian,” Thune said on Friday. “But if we could get some of those question issues landed, then my expectation is at some point tomorrow we will be ready to go.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., conceded the timeline may shift if the Senate can’t pass the package over the weekend, but told reporters he didn’t “even want to accept that as an option right now.”
Meanwhile, House Republicans have been told to keep their schedules flexible next week. The Republican whip team sent an email to members on Wednesday to notify them that “votes are possible in the House next week” and that members would get a “minimum of 48 hours’ notice prior to any votes in the House.”