Intense negotiations are underway among House Republicans in the leadup to a crucial vote Sunday evening as GOP leadership races to get Trump’s sweeping tax and spending cuts bill back on track after an embarrassing setback late last week.
House Speaker Mike Johnson signaled a potential compromise to get holdouts on board and advance the bill in the House Budget Committee on Sunday , saying that Republicans are working on moving up the timeline for the implementation of work requirements for Medicaid recipients – a key change hardliners are pushing for.
“The concern is, what we’re trying to work with is the ability of the states to retool their systems and ensure the verification process is to make sure that all the new laws and all the new safeguards are replacing can actually be enforced,” he said. “And so we’re working through all those details, and we’ll get it done.”
It’s a change that South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, one of the Republicans who voted against advancing Trump’s massive domestic policy bill on Friday, said on Saturday was necessary to get him to support the bill.
Accelerating the phase out of tax credits for green energy projects under the Inflation Reduction Act was also among the changes under consideration, he said, noting that the holdouts “absolutely” must get both changes. “Otherwise, we vote no,” he added.
Norman told CNN that he expects House Budget Committee’s chairman Jodey Arrington to offer an amendment during Sunday night’s Budget Committee meeting to make some of the changes.
Along with Norman, the other Republican holdouts are: Chip Roy of Texas, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Andrew Clyde of Georgia.
The bill includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts and a big boost to the US military and to national security — largely paid for by overhauls to federal health and nutrition programs and cuts to energy programs.
Making changes to appease hardliners could turn off moderate Republicans — including a number who are worried that phasing out the tax credits could imperil jobs in their districts — and others worried about cuts to Medicaid benefits.
Still, two GOP leadership sources also told CNN that signs appeared positive that the bill would get back on track with a vote to advance the bill in the House Budget Committee Sunday night — with the goal of passing the bill out of the narrowly divided House later this week.
Trump, GOP sources said, was not directly involved in Saturday’s talks but White House officials were.
Meanwhile, a group of swing-district House Republicans are seeking to raise the tax rate on top earners in order to offset the cost of lifting the cap on how much their constituents can deduct in their state and local taxes, known as SALT. Hardliners have warned they won’t agree to increasing the SALT cap if it isn’t paid for.
“Allowing the top tax rate to expire and returning from 37% to 39.6% for individuals earning $609,350 or more and married couples earning $731,200 or more breathes $300 billion of new life into the One Big, Beautiful Bill,” Rep. Nick LaLota of New York told CNN on Saturday.
CNN’s Manu Raju, Aileen Graef, and Lauren Fox contributed to this report.
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