House nears passage of sweeping GOP budget bill

WASHINGTON — The House early Thursday edged closer to passing Republicans’ mammoth tax and spending package despite last-ditch efforts from Democrats to prolong what appears to be an inevitable approval later Thursday of the “big, beautiful” legislation called for by President Donald Trump.

After tamping a revolt from GOP conservatives, House Republicans approved a rule governing floor debate for the budget reconciliation bill on a 219-213 vote, with just one Republican joining all Democrats in opposition.

Immediately after that, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., began an hourslong monologue, sharing stories of those who would be impacted by cuts to Medicaid and supplemental food assistance.

Even as Jeffries spoke, the endgame was clear, with final passage likely to occur sometime later Thursday, barring a surprise development.

Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., a surprise centrist defection, was the sole GOP “no” vote on the rule. Four other initial opponents of the rule flipped after hours of discussions with leadership and the White House, including Trump.

Passage of the bill would represent a legislative victory for Trump that could define next year’s midterm elections.

The rule vote came after a long day and night of backroom cajoling and arm-twisting, including two of the longest votes held open in modern House history.

Fiscal conservatives, led by the hard-line Freedom Caucus, objected to the bill’s price tag, which grew $110 billion higher, to $3.4 trillion over 10 years, after changes made by the Senate. They were seeking commitments to deeper spending cuts, in addition to reversals of policy decisions the Senate made — some on procedural grounds after the parliamentarian objected.

The hard-liners said they received assurances from the Trump administration that some of their concerns with the Senate bill could be addressed through executive actions, as well as subsequent legislation.

Some GOP moderates were resisting the bill because of cuts to Medicaid that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would throw millions of Americans off their health insurance. But moderates eventually fell in line, leaving only a handful of conservatives, mostly from the Freedom Caucus, standing in the way.

Record-setting vote

Their obstinance brought business on the House floor to a halt for much of the day and night while Trump and House leaders tried to address concerns. The long delay in the talks also forced House leaders to hold open a procedural vote that appeared to become the longest House vote in modern history — over seven hours.

The rule vote itself rivaled the longest held-open votes, at six hours. When the vote on the rule finally began at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Republicans were soon facing potential defeat as five of their members registered “no” votes. They could only lose three and still adopt the rule along party lines.

In addition to the five original “no" votes — Fitzpatrick plus Reps. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, Keith Self of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky — there were eight members who hadn’t voted by early Thursday morning.

Those eight were conservative hard-liners unhappy with the $3.4 trillion price tag and policy decisions made by Senate Republicans. Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., appeared to be the target of heavy lobbying on the floor, including from Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn.

Burchett later fist-bumped with Emmer, which might be taken as a positive sign, though he didn’t immediately cast a vote. Eventually, Burchett and the rest fell in line and backed the rule. He later said he expected the bill to pass, albeit with some GOP defections.

Freedom Caucus Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, had held off on voting for the rule for hours. After the vote, Roy told told reporters that over the course of the day and night’s discussions, “we think we got it to a much better place.” He declined to elaborate on what concessions the group extracted.

“We’ll have more to say about that after the final vote,” a hoarse-sounding Roy said. “The important thing is, when you have a Senate that will mess it up, as the Senate did, that you have an administration that will clean up the mess.”

Earlier, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., could be seen in heated conversation with Clyde, who is livid that the Senate stripped language that would have removed firearms registration requirements — the Senate parliamentarian deemed that provision a “Byrd rule” violation because it was nonbudgetary material.

Still, Johnson expressed confidence while taking a break from the arm-twisting to call in to Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show. He said some of the “no” votes were just “placeholders” while GOP leaders worked to assuage their concerns. “Everybody’s here in good faith,” he said.

Johnson added that he’d keep the vote open “as long as it takes” to be successful.

‘Perfectly comfortable’

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., who voted against the rule in committee on Tuesday night, said he was won over by promises from the administration to work on further actions to restrain spending and reverse policy decisions made in the Senate bill.

“We’ve got a big mountain to climb with the debt. But ... we’re comfortable they’re going to do that. Set the things in motion,” Norman said.

“I was disappointed that the solar tax credits ... solar and wind wasn’t done away with,” he added. “That being said, we had enough assurances the president was going to deal with it in his own way. I feel perfectly comfortable, which I wasn’t beforehand.”

Massie, who had been an unexpected “yes” vote for the first hour or so of the vote, later flipped to a “no” as most thought was coming. He’s never given any indication he’d back either the rule or the bill, and he voted “no” on the initial House version in May.

Spartz has already said she’d vote for the underlying bill, but that she’d vote “no” on the rule “due to broken commitments” from Johnson.

Self initially appeared unlikely to change his mind, issuing a statement shortly after he voted that the bill had to be fixed.

“The Senate broke the House framework, and then they stomped all over it,” Self said. “Now, House leadership wants to cram this broken bill down our throats by rushing it to the floor while in the middle of discussions, completely disregarding their promises.”

After the vote, Self declined to comment on what promises persuaded him to flip, saying he didn’t want to discuss that until after the bill passes.

Fitzpatrick has expressed concerns with clean-energy tax credit terminations and phaseouts, as well as Medicaid and food stamp cuts in the package. But until Wednesday night, it didn’t appear he was a major risk for GOP leadership.

As Wednesday turned into Thursday, Trump himself weighed in with a social media message to holdouts, a little after midnight.

“What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove???” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!”

Later, tempers cooled and the holdouts filed onto the House floor. Johnson huddled with them in the center of the chamber, hugging in a circle. And the deal was sealed.

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(David Jordan and Paul M. Krawzak contributed to this report.)