House Republicans are in disarray ahead of an expected Wednesday afternoon vote to advance the Senate’s version of a massive bill advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Several people who spoke with Fox News Digital said they were concerned that even the president may not be able to sway holdouts ahead of a planned Wednesday vote – despite Trump’s ability to do so on key pieces of legislation on multiple occasions this year.
‘This one is tough to tell,’ one senior House Republican said when asked if Trump could persuade enough critics to pass the legislation. ‘There’s a level of distrust, historically – that from [$1.5 trillion] to $4 billion, it’s like, why did we go so low?’
Fiscal hawks’ chief concerns with the bill lie in the differences between minimum mandatory spending cuts.
The House’s version, which the chamber passed in late February, calls for at least $1.5 to $2 trillion in federal spending cuts to offset the new spending for Trump’s priorities on defense, the border and taxes.
The Senate passed an amendment to the House version over the weekend that, while closely mirroring the lower chamber, called for at least $4 billion in spending cuts.
Sources told Fox News Digital that there are as many as 30 to 40 people who have at least shared serious concerns about the bill.
Some skeptics are expected to be part of a group of House Republicans heading to the White House on Tuesday afternoon to meet with Trump.
But at least three lawmakers who have shared concerns about the bill – Reps. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Keith Self, R-Texas – said they were not invited.
Meanwhile, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., signaled to reporters that he turned the invitation down.
‘There’s nothing I don’t understand about this issue. So, you know, let the president spend time with people who maybe will change their mind,’ Harris said.
He said of Trump’s influence, ‘It’s not going to help getting enough votes to pass this week. It’s just, there too many members who are just not going to vote for it, no matter what.’
‘I don’t see it happening,’ a second House Republican told Fox News Digital when asked if Trump could get the legislation over the line.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., said, ‘I love the president,’ but similarly doubted whether the legislation could pass a Wednesday afternoon vote.
‘I think that because what the Senate sent over is so financially immoral, that it doesn’t matter how much pressure, there’s so many of us that can’t swallow it,’ he told reporters.
Congressional Republicans are working on a massive piece of legislation that Trump has dubbed ‘one big, beautiful bill’ to advance his agenda on border security, defense, energy and taxes.
Such a measure is largely only possible via the budget reconciliation process. Traditionally used when one party controls all three branches of government, reconciliation lowers the Senate’s threshold for passage of certain fiscal measures from 60 votes to 51. As a result, it has been used to pass broad policy changes in one or two massive pieces of legislation.
Trump publicly called for House Republicans to fall in line to pass the Senate version on Monday night.
‘There is no better time than now to get this Deal DONE! The House, the Senate, and our Great Administration, are going to work tirelessly on creating ‘THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL, BILL,’ an appropriate name if Congress so likes. Everyone is going to be happy with the result,’ he wrote on Truth Social. ‘THE HOUSE MUST PASS THIS BUDGET RESOLUTION, AND QUICKLY – MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!’
House GOP leaders have argued that passing the Senate’s version is a critical step to unlocking the main portion of the reconciliation process, where the relevant committees find ways to enact conservative policy goals in line with the funding set out by Republicans’ reconciliation framework.
They’ve also insisted that passing the Senate’s version does not impede the House from working toward its more conservative goal.
‘The budget resolution is not the law, OK? All this does is it allows us to continue the process, begin drafting the actual legislation that really counts. And that’s the one big, beautiful bill. Number two, the Senate amendment makes no changes to the reconciliation instructions that we put into the budget resolution. So our objectives remain intact,’ Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during his weekly press conference.
‘Number three, any final reconciliation bill has to include historic spending reductions that we included in our, resolution while also safeguarding essential programs.’
But fiscal hawks critical of the bill, like Harris, are pushing Republican leaders to allow the House to begin working on its reconciliation bill now and forcing the Senate to reckon with that proposal.
And some Republican holdouts are optimistic that Trump could get them to a point where they can support the legislation Wednesday.
‘I sure hope he can,’ Norman told Fox News Digital. ‘We’re in favor of what he’s doing.’
