The two most powerful Republicans projected total confidence Wednesday as they try to get the GOP megabill moving through the House: President Donald Trump proclaimed “great progress” after a meeting of top leaders, and Speaker Mike Johnson said key committee markups would “100 percent” take place next week.
There was one undeniable point of progress: House Agriculture has scheduled its markup for Tuesday. The committee will convene after House votes that evening and break around midnight, then reconvene at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to discuss Democratic amendments to the bill.
But clashes within the House GOP have left the two most critical committees still hashing out their pieces of the bill. Here’s where things stand:
WAYS AND MEANS: Republican tax writers left a meeting Wednesday with blue-state Republicans without resolving a cap on state and local tax deductions, a key hangup for the committee. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, one of the SALT Republicans, called the issue one of “the stickiest points” of the entire GOP agenda.
And with other committees potentially trimming back their savings targets, GOP tax writers are privately prepping a potential backup plan. They’re considering $4 trillion in tax cuts instead of the initial $4.5 trillion as a possible contingency plan if the targeted savings don’t materialize.
How do you trim a half-trillion dollars? Republicans are already considering a “bunch” of temporary tax provisions to reduce costs, said Rep. Ron Estes, one of the GOP tax writers. Expect some of them to get even more temporary.
ENERGY AND COMMERCE: The panel could meet as soon as Tuesday to mark up its portion of the megabill, which calls for $880 billion in savings. “If we’re gonna get done by Memorial Day … we need to do something next week,” Chair Brett Guthrie told reporters Wednesday after a closed-door meeting of committee Republicans.
But that timeline is dependent on Guthrie navigating a path forward on Medicaid cuts. That includes deciding whether or not to move forward with a plan to cap the level of federal spending in states that have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. Moderates have balked at the proposal, but hardliners are pushing for it — a dynamic Rep. Jay Obernolte acknowledged after the meeting.
“It’s always difficult to have these conversations in isolation because of tradeoffs — you have a letter from some of the fiscal conservatives talking about how spending increases have to be balanced with spending reductions,” Obernolte said.
In any case, those conversations will continue today: Members of both committees are set to meet again this morning.
What else we’re watching:
— Crypto bill vote: Senate Majority Leader John Thune plans to plow ahead with a procedural vote on landmark cryptocurrency legislation this afternoon even as Democratic holdouts push for more time to finalize a deal and get other members on board. They have some wiggle room; the vote is set for 1:45 p.m.
— Rescissions reviews: House Republicans and the White House are privately negotiating details of the spending rescissions request that had been expected to claw back $9.3 billion already allocated. Also on GOP appropriators’ minds: The White House is open to unilaterally freezing cash that Congress approves in September if lawmakers overshoot Trump’s latest budget request.
— New Ezra Klein-inspired caucus: House Democrats led by Rep. Josh Harder are launching a roughly 30-member bipartisan bloc inspired by the “abundance” movement championed by liberal commentator Ezra Klein. The “Build America Caucus” will focus on cutting red tape around energy permitting and housing. It also wants to make recommendations on embedding provisions in key legislation like the defense authorization bill.
Brian Faler, Jasper Goodman, Meredith Lee Hill, Holly Otterbein, Jennifer Scholtes, Katherine Tully-McManus, Nicholas Wu and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.
