'We are really in trouble': House GOP leader concerned about fate of under-the-radar bill
U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-MI) speak to members of the media, on the day of a closed House Republican Conference meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 20, 2025. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno
While all eyes are on H.R. 1 ("The One Big Beautiful Bill Act"), another major piece of legislation is scheduled for a vote this week. And one Republican leader isn't fully confident that it will pass despite the GOP having a majority in the House of Representatives.
Axios reported Wednesday that Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.), who is chair of the House Republican Conference, made the remark while urging her GOP counterparts in the U.S. Senate to not fundamentally alter the House version of H.R. 1 if they hoped to get it signed into law by the target date of early July. While telling Senate Republicans that she understood that the upper chamber of Congress had to get its "fingerprints" on the legislation, they should "touch very lightly" to avoid a time-consuming conference process.
"Change it 10%, but I think 30% is a lot," McClain said in response to a question about Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) suggesting that the Senate may only keep 60% to 70% of the original bill.
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However, McClain then pivoted to the fate of a $9.4 billion rescissions package (a "rescission" is an act of Congress that claws back money that had already been appropriated) to codify some of the cuts that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's Department og Government Efficiency (DOGE) made earlier this year. That package would effectively defund NPR and PBS, while also stripping more than $8 billion from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the African Development Foundation.
"If we can't pass this rescission package, we are really in trouble," the Michigan Republican said.
While McClain added that she still believes "we're going to pass it," at least one Republican member of the House has voiced concerns about the bill. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) told CNN on Wednesday that "the bill has problems," and that it sets a bad precedent that the executive branch can strip the legislative branch of a key Constitutional responsibility.
“We are, at the end of the day, the Congress that holds the power of the purse. We're the ones who are supposed to be identifying where funding is going and this gives a lot of discretion to the White House to be doing that unilaterally," Malliotakis said, adding that she "Imet with a bunch of constituents who all say they want PBS to be continued to be funded. And these are Republicans. These are not left-leaning voters in my district."
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Click here to read Axios' full article.
