Congress
House Republicans set flurry of meetings on GOP megabill
House Republicans have planned a slew of meetings this week that they hope will resolve huge political battles over their massive domestic policy bill as they race the clock on a Memorial Day deadline.
Republicans on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee are planning to convene on 10 a.m. on Tuesday and 9 a.m. on Thursday, in addition to their weekly noon lunch Wednesday, according to a person granted anonymity to share the private plans.
The so-called Big Six Meeting — run by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, with GOP leaders and the House and Senate tax committee chairs — is slated to convene late afternoon on Wednesday at the Treasury Department.
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are planning to meet from 10:15 a.m. to noon on Tuesday and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Wednesday as they work through an internal fight over Medicaid spending cuts.
Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) is planning to drop by a meeting with Main Street Republicans on Monday night amid growing tensions between moderates and conservative hardliners over the scope of Medicaid cuts in the party-line bill.
The committee’s target of $880 billion in spending cuts remains a huge political flashpoint for the GOP conference.
The meetings come as House GOP leadership is racing to finalize the sweeping border, defense, energy and tax bill by Memorial Day. In order to meet that very ambitious goal, panels like the Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Agriculture committees would have to vote next week on the most politically sensitive portions of the agenda.
It’s looking to be a tall order, and several key power players, such as Bessent and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, say they are now targeting July 4 to pass President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”
Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and a hardcore contingent of Republicans from blue states still have to resolve an ongoing fight over a proposed expansion of the state and local tax deduction. Despite a flurry of negotiations next week, the so-called SALT Republicans have yet to come to a consensus on how to expand the 10,000 cap on the deduction.
The committee must also determine how much it is able to spend on the expensive tax deduction.
Tax writers are also looking to sunset most or all of the clean energy credits implemented by Democrats’ 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which a group of 20-plus moderates have pushed back against.
The House Agriculture Committee, meanwhile, is navigating politically sensitive discussions over how to find the bulk of $230 billion in spending cuts in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, while also adding billions of dollars in crop reference prices and other farm bill pieces.
Republicans on the panel are set to meet Tuesday as more controversial proposals circulated by GOP lawmakers have stoked private concerns from those who represent districts with many low-income families relying on the program.
Ben Leonard contributed to this report.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he is confident Sen. Markwayne Mullin will be confirmed as the next secretary of Homeland Security despite a contentious exchange with fellow GOP Sen. Rand Paul at a hearing Wednesday.
Paul, the chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, sharply questioned the Oklahoma senator about past remarks that he “understood” why Paul suffered a heinous assault from a neighbor in 2017. Mullin refused to apologize for the remark.
“Those two obviously have some history, and it’s, you know, personal stuff,” Thune said. “They’ve got to work through it. I mean, in the end, this is about the job, and it’s about making sure that we got the right person there. I think Markwayne is the right person for the job.”
Asked if he was still confident Mullin can be confirmed, Thune said, “Yeah.”
Paul has scheduled a committee vote on Mullin for Thursday. While Paul’s vote is in serious doubt, Mullin could win over Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, who has expressed support for Mullin previously and said Wednesday he would approach the nomination “with an open mind.”
“I haven’t been rocked by some mic-dropping kind of moments,” Fetterman told reporters after the hearing.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin said he regretted calling Alex Pretti “deranged” but stopped short of offering a direct apology to Pretti’s family.
“I shouldn’t have said that,” the Oklahoma Republican said during his confirmation hearing Wednesday to serve as the next Homeland Security secretary. He was referring to his past comments regarding the U.S. citizen killed by federal immigration enforcement agents in Minnesota back in January, who some conservatives in the immediate aftermath labeled a “domestic terrorist.”
It was a stronger concession than Mullin gave just moments earlier, when he refused to apologize for calling Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), the chair of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, a “snake.” Still, when pressed by the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, Mullin would not commit to apologizing to Pretti’s family until the conclusion of an investigation into the incident.
“If I’m proven wrong, then I will,” Mullin said.
Regarding Renee Good, another U.S. citizen killed by immigration enforcement officers in Minnesota earlier this year, Mullin refused to retract comments he made at the time of Good’s death, specifically that agents were justified in killing her. He told BLN in January that agents “had the right to defend themselves.”
He said he would wait for the findings of the investigation into Good’s killing to comment further; Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) countered that the Trump administration is currently blocking state and local inquiries.
A committee vote on Sen. Markwayne Mullin’s confirmation as Homeland Security secretary remains on track for Thursday despite a fiery sparring session Wednesday between the Oklahoma Republican and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the chair of the panel that must approve his nomination.
A spokesperson for Paul said after the tense exchange — during which Mullin refused to apologize for comments saying he “understood” why Paul was violently assaulted in 2017 — that the committee vote “is on for tomorrow.”
As chair of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Paul has wide latitude to schedule action on Mullin’s nomination.
- Markwayne Mullin’s DHS nomination not at risk from Rand Paul, Thune says
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