Johnson Pressing for Every Vote He Can Get for Trump’s ‘One, Big, Beautiful Bill’

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., flanked by staffers, was moving quickly across the first floor of the Capitol when he encountered a small clutch of reporters in a corridor lined with statuary.

“Sorry,” he said as he looked up from his ever-present binder. “I can’t comment on anything right now. There’s just too much going on.”

With that, the slight smile that had briefly crossed his face disappeared.

He looked grim, the reporters agreed as he passed.

A moment and a left-hand turn later, it was as if the speaker hadn’t passed at all.

It’s been that kind of day for Johnson, who welcomed President Donald Trump to the Capitol Tuesday morning for a meeting with the Republican Conference.

Over the weekend, dissidents on the House Budget Committee had acquiesced to the speaker’s request that they temporarily put aside their fiscal concerns over the so-called “one, big, beautiful bill,” and allow it to advance to a vote on the floor.

Johnson and the chamber’s Republican leadership would like to hold that vote as early as Wednesday night, even going so far as scheduling a 1 a.m. Rules Committee meeting in a bid to make it happen.

To accelerate the process, the House on Tuesday passed a rule that formally gives the speaker the authority to bring the bill up for a floor vote on the same day a rule clears the committee.

To some, getting behind the bill is a no-brainer.

“It’s just so darn Republican,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, during a briefing with reporters Tuesday morning.

“This bill embraces three fundamental Republican principles: it cuts taxes, it secures the border, and it requires that abled-bodied adults who receive public assistance work in order to qualify for those benefits.

“We’re the party that believes you should let mom and dad use their money to chase down their goals and dreams,” Jordan said.

“This bill is good for taxpayers. It’s good for the economy. And most importantly, it’s good for that individual we’re getting back to work,” he added.

Johnson himself spoke of the excitement surrounding the president’s visit, and Trump’s willingness to “roll his sleeves up and come stand in the trenches and be part of this.”

“I don’t think there has ever been a time when I’ve been more proud to be a Republican, and to be an American. We’re on the verge of making history here,” he said.

But as the clock clicked relentlessly toward the Rules Committee’s early morning session, Johnson appeared far from having the 217 votes he’ll ultimately need to pass a bill that would permanently extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and advance scores of other Republican agenda items.

The hope had been that Trump would show up on Capitol Hill, rally the troops and cajole a handful of holdouts to go along for the greater good of the party.

Instead, with no Democrats voting yes and Johnson only able to lose two votes, resistance seemed to stiffen in the president’s wake, with deal breakers appearing to be concerns over the future of Medicaid and the absence of a deal on the state-and-local tax deduction cap.

“President Trump had a strong and clear message to a packed meeting of the House Republican Conference,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told reporters. 

“That message was, after months of long and intense discussion — over really important differences and issues — this one, big, beautiful bill has come through the committee process, and it’s time to end the negotiation process unified before this bill and get it passed and on to the Senate,” he said.

Only the president wasn’t quite that diplomatic. Scalise, understandably, had smoothed some of the rough edges from the hour-plus-long discussion in HC-5, the room in the Capitol where the Republican Conference meets.

“Don’t fuck around with Medicaid,” Trump told the members, according to some who were present — a statement seen as a rebuke to the House Freedom Caucus, which has been pushing for changes to FMAP, the formula by which the federal government reimburses states for Medicaid.

He had long maintained all Republicans should do is ride the program of “waste, fraud and abuse,” and he is said to have made it clear that he didn’t want the conference to go one step further.

But what really seemed to rankle him Tuesday morning were the blue state Republicans who, after pushing to restore the SALT deduction, are now threatening to torpedo the entire bill over the size of the cap.

The most recent offer, as of Tuesday morning, is that the House would raise the deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000 for four years for people earning less than $751,600.

After four years the deduction cap would be reduced to $30,000, but would apply to those earning $400,000 or less.

Among those who have thus far rejected the deal are a group of New York state Republicans, led by Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.

Trump is said to have singled out Lawler for a savaging during the meeting, telling him at one point, “I know your district better than you do.”

Trump later reportedly told the Hudson Valley Republican that if he loses his reelection bid in 2026 because voters think the SALT cap is too low, then Lawler was going to “lose anyway.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Lawler responded in a post on X, saying, “While I respect President Trump and understand the importance of passing this legislation, I will not do so at the expense of my district — one of only three held by a Republican that Kamala Harris won in November.” 

Later in the day, after a meeting with the speaker, Lawler indicated that he and the other SALT holdouts had gotten a new offer from Johnson that seemed promising.

Though the details are being closely held as this article is being published, it appears they are now considering an offer that would extend a raised SALT deduction cap for as much as 10 years.

As for the House Freedom Caucus, its members are said to be pushing for deeper provider tax cuts rather than FMAP changes.

The president is also said to have lambasted Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., during the meeting for consistently opposing his second-term agenda.

At one point he went so far as to compare him to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who often threatens to torpedo legislation he doesn’t agree with.

“Neither of them ever wants to vote yes,” the president reportedly said.

One area that appears not to have been addressed during the session is the fate of Biden-era clean energy incentives that were part of the Inflation Reduction Act. 

While some in the Republican leadership said Tuesday that the current bill “repeals and rolls back over a billion dollars in funding for the radical Green New Deal,” House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and others said there is no agreement on how and when the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits will be scaled back.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., said Tuesday that the conference is facing a “historic moment … that has the potential to revive the American dream.”

“The time to get this done is now,” he said. “This is truly a once-in-a-generation chance to get America back on track.”

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue