NOTUS reports House Republicans still have cold feet over the 1,000+ page budget bill they rushed to the Senate last month.
Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" (H.R. 1), landed in the Senate’s lap only after House Speaker Mike Johnson managed to cobble agreements between House factions warring over Medicaid, the deficit and high property-taxes.
Now Republican House members are pushing those cold feet into Senate beds and pressuring senators to alter the reconciliation bill before it comes back to the House. But Senate leaders don’t appear to appreciate the unsolicited input.
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“I think it’s kind of a hollow argument,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.). “They’re entitled to their opinion. I don’t think it’s influencing our decision in terms of what we’re going to do.”
Capito told NOTUS that House members are warning individual senate members that the bill may not survive a House vote with certain provisions intact or unchanged.
“‘Oh, this guy’s not going to vote for it, we got to change that,’” Capito said, mimicking House overtures. But she inserted: “They had their chance.”
NOTUS reports critics from inside the party are complaining the reconciliation process was too furious after President Donald Trump pressured and threatened Republican Party members to pass the legislation quickly. Now their buyer’s remorse is wafting after the bill and drifting down Senate halls. Meanwhile Trump’s devoted House followers are complaining the mechanics of the reconciliation process are taking too long.
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But Republicans in the Senate can only afford to lose three Republican votes without recalcitrant Democrats tanking the bill, and the three opposing Republican factions—deficit hawks, Medicaid advocates and property tax advocates—must come to an uneasy agreement if the budget proposal is to survive without Democratic votes. All three House enclaves are already bunkering with like-minded senators, with unclear consequences.
Read the full NOTUS report at this link.