By Dave Goldiner
New York Daily News
(TNS)
The Republican-led House of Representatives was poised Wednesday to hold a do-over vote on President Donald Trump’s sprawling budget bill to tweak some provisions that ran afoul of the complicated rules allowing the GOP to pass the bill using the arcane reconciliation process.
The amended “big, beautiful bill” would nix a measure cracking down on a COVID pandemic-era tax credit to retain workers that would have recouped $6.3 billion in savings and $2.5 billion on Pentagon spending programs, along with some other relatively minor edicts that the Senate parliamentarian says run afoul of the upper chamber’s rules.
The bill was expected to win approval by the same or nearly the same 215-214 margin that it eked through on May 21.
- Related article: House Passes Sweeping ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ After Weeks of Arm-Twisting
- Related article: SALT Write-Off, Harvard Tax, Medicaid Cuts: What’s in Trump’s Bill
But it’s forcing a handful of Republicans who criticized provisions of the bill into voting for it a second time in the space of a couple of weeks.
Democratic leaders Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Chuck Schumer trashed the GOP lawmakers as hypocrites for backing the bill that would slash health care spending and bestow massive tax cuts mostly on big corporations and high earners.
“This is the opportunity for Republicans to not simply talk the talk but walk the walk on behalf of the American people,” Jeffries told reporters at a press conference.
The House needed to resolve the relatively minor issues before it officially transmits the 1,100-page bill to the Senate to guarantee GOP leaders wouldn’t lose its power to skirt the filibuster and pass it by a simple majority vote.
Still, the nips and tucks underline the tricky political balancing act Republicans of all stripes in both chambers of Congress face as they struggle to pass Trump’s signature domestic policy bill ahead of a self-imposed deadline of July 4.
Some relatively moderate Republicans are pushing to keep the spending cuts to a minimum, particularly those aimed at popular social safety net programs like Medicaid and Medicare. They fear harsh cuts could spark a voter backlash in the midterm elections.
But fiscal hawks take the exact opposite stance, saying the bill offers a once-in-a-generation chance to rein in spending on social programs. They support extending the 2017 tax cuts but only if they can be evened out by cuts and they strongly oppose Trump’s push to lift the debt ceiling.
The spending opponents got a boost when mogul Elon Musk denounced the bill as an “abomination” but may have suffered a black eye when Trump pushed back hard against his one-time ally.
A small group of GOP lawmakers from New York and other high-tax blue states demand a major increase in the SALT deduction for state and local taxes, a move that populists mostly strongly oppose.
- Related article: Fight Over a SALT Cap Deal Hits a Snag in the Senate
Trump can likely afford to lose no more than three votes in the Senate, in which Republicans hold a 53-47 edge, to pass the massive bill and send it to his desk.
There is no legislative reason the bill needs to be passed by July 4 but GOP leaders fear any slippage will embolden opponents and various factions to escalate their efforts to derail the bill.
Photo caption: House Speaker Mike Johnson addresses the media on June 10, 2025.
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©2025 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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