Congress
Republicans close in on ‘big, beautiful’ deal
Republican leaders are increasingly confident they will be able to notch a final deal with key GOP megabill holdouts and move toward a final vote in the coming days after several whirlwind hours of closely held negotiations.
The upbeat turn in the frequently tumultuous talks was described by six senior Republicans who are participating in them. It came after President Donald Trump visited Capitol Hill Tuesday morning to personally urge the warring factions to drop their demands and come to an agreement on the sprawling domestic-policy bill centered on a multi-trillion-dollar suite of tax cuts.
Some of those holdouts emerged from the morning meeting proclaiming ongoing opposition to the current proposal. Behind the scenes, however, many of those obstinate members have been looking for off-ramps — eager to find a way to “yes” while also proclaiming victory on their particular interests, said the six Republicans, who were granted anonymity to describe the private talks.
A bitter war waged by blue-state Republicans over the state-and-local-tax deduction, or SALT, is nearing a final resolution, according to people involved in the talks, after GOP leaders offered to slightly sweeten their offer. The group huddled Tuesday evening with Speaker Mike Johnson in hopes of wrapping things up.
And to win over hard-line conservatives pushing for more spending cuts, Johnson’s team is working to accelerate the phase-out of clean-energy tax credits enacted under former President Joe Biden. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters Tuesday night that the bill would “limit dramatically any new projects from starting” using Inflation Reduction Act incentives.
“I think everybody on both sides have been looking for ‘outs,’ and I think they’re getting them today,” said one senior GOP aide.
House leaders are rushing to notch a deal with the various factions ahead of a scheduled 1 a.m. Rules Committee meeting, where the bill will be readied for floor consideration. Johnson has imposed a Memorial Day deadline for a final House vote and is holding out hope that things could be wrapped up as soon as Wednesday.
“We’ve been talking to other sides of the conference,” Scalise said. “Because, of course, with each of these pieces, for every person that wants to make a change over here, there are people that don’t want to make the change over there.”
“We’re gonna be up late,” he added.
The progress, however, has been palpable. Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland — chair of the hard-right Freedom Caucus — emerged from the morning Trump meeting insisting that he was far from a “yes” and demanding further cuts to Medicaid. By the evening, he declared things were “moving in the right direction” and was no longer insisting a vote this week was impossible.
Harris said some major work remains on ironing out the parameters around axing the clean-energy tax credits, but he and other conservatives have all but dropped their push for the steepest cuts to Medicaid following Trump’s insistence Tuesday morning that they leave the program alone.
GOP leaders have worked to split the opposition, peeling away members who are less dug in on policy principles and are otherwise uncomfortable breaking with the president and the bulk of the party.
They include Rep. Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.), who has taken a less confrontational stance than fellow fiscal hawks Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) or Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) — and, according to the Republicans involved in the talks, has looked for ways to get on board after helping tank a key Budget Committee vote last Friday, enraging Trump.
Johnson huddled with Brecheen alone on the House floor Tuesday afternoon. Shortly after, he told reporters he was “hopeful” on a deal.
Meanwhile, vulnerable centrists are relieved that Trump told conservatives to back off further cuts to safety-net programs, and the SALT Republicans are heading toward a resolution after a Trump tongue-lashing. Leaders are proposing to extend the length of a new $40,000 cap to a full 10 years after previous offers would have sunset after shorter windows.
“We weren’t even in the same universe a couple of days ago,” said Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) after walking out of Johnson’s office Tuesday night. “We’re in the same ball field now.”
GOP leaders aren’t necessarily determined to get every last holdout on board before sending a bill to the Rules Committee. Two key hard-liners who sit on the panel — Norman and Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia — said Tuesday they were inclined to advance the bill to the floor.
That’s where Johnson’s leadership circle believes they can lean on the final holdouts until they break — possibly with help from Trump.
The thinking, several of the Republicans said, is that some members will keep asking for more time until leaders finally call the question: Are you with Trump and your Republican colleagues, or aren’t you?
And if they insist on voting the bill down, the belief is they would eventually crumble under fierce public pressure from constituents and MAGA loyalists furious about the failure of Trump’s signature bill.
“Things don’t get better when you hold it out there,” as one senior Republican said.
Another was more blunt: “It’s easier to break up with someone from a basement over email. Harder to do it in person, face-to-face.”
Robert King and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
The chair of the House Agriculture Committee said he’s not willing to “accept bad results” as a tradeoff for the benefits of advancements in artificial intelligence — a direct rebuttal to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
“As someone who practiced health care for 28 years, I’m never willing to accept bad results. I think we just need to do our best,” Rep. G.T. Thompson, a Pennsylvania Republican, told reporters Monday.
He was responding to Altman’s comments to Decoded by Blue Light News that people “should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency.”
Pressed further on whether he agreed with Altman’s premise, Thompson replied, “No, I think we have to work harder to prevent any bad things from happening.”
Altman’s comments come in the wake of increased panic over the risks of catastrophic destruction from AI, with many industry leaders and experts arguing that guardrails are needed on the technology to prevent it from spinning out of human control.
Pressure is building on Congress to regulate the rapidly-advancing technology, but lawmakers are divided over whether the AI industry needs federal regulation or if it’s capable of governing itself.
The executives of major AI labs and tech companies gathered at the White House last week to discuss solutions with President Donald Trump, who believes overregulating AI will have national security repercussions. The group ended up signing a “morally binding” AI accord that critics say won’t do enough to prevent a worst-case scenario.
Thompson noted Monday he believes that AI will bring “tremendous solutions,” specifically in regards to finding cures for health issues like cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. But he also said AI has to be led with “principle” — comparing it to how he addressed digital assets in a bill to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, which he worked on as chair of the Agriculture Committee.
“The first principle is ‘do no harm.’ So we need to protect consumers, and that means, I think, building some guardrails — some guidelines — to do that,” Thompson said. He added that the second principle is to “foster innovation.”
“I think AI has a lot to do with that,” he added. “I don’t think AI works without RI: Real Intelligence.”
LE SUEUR, Minnesota — Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday there is no “consensus” yet on advancing a bill establishing permanent daylight saving time even as President Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Republicans to pass it.
Thune addressed the matter in a Monday interview after Trump used his Truth Social account multiple times over the weekend to rail against the legislation, known as the Sunshine Protection Act — going so far as to post the personal cell phone number of one of its GOP opponents, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
“The president feels strongly on it like he does a lot of issues,” he said. “It’s something we’re having conversations about but there’s no clear path forward or consensus on it yet.”
While Trump singled out Cotton for scrutiny, Thune made clear the opposition to the permanent daylight saving time proposal — which would lead to very late winter sunrises in some parts of the country — ran deeper than one senator.
Cotton has publicly voiced opposition to the proposal for year, citing, among other things, the fact that children in his state would be going to school in the dark for part of the year.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) voiced similar objections Monday to reporters in the Capitol, saying he was mindful of “safety concerns in the more northern and rural states where children get on the school bus in very early hours.”
Thune, who spoke during a campaign swing in Minnesota with GOP Senate nominee Michele Tafoya, has himself opposed previous daylight saving bills. He said Monday that “a lot of it depends on where you are in the country” and that “your geography probably has as much to do with your position on that as anything.”
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who has aligned himself closely with Trump, is among the lawmakers who have been pushing to get the bill through the Senate. He recently told POLITICO, “I’m going to make sure it gets passed this year.”
Riley Rogerson contributed to this report.
Democrats have pulled back some of their ads in North Carolina’s Senate race, days after the top Senate Republican super PAC paused its future spending in the state.
WinSenate, a group affiliated with the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC, has removed roughly $1.1 million in North Carolina ad buys this week, according to ad tracking firm AdImpact. The group still has roughly $18.8 million in future reservations through Election Day.
“Senate Majority PAC is committed to seeing this race through to victory, and will continue to make spending decisions based on how to best build a strong Senate majority,” Senate Majority PAC spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement.
The move, combined with the GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund’s decision to pause future spending, are a signal that both parties are shifting resources amid an ever-expanding Senate map. Democrats are increasingly confident in their North Carolina Senate nominee, Roy Cooper, as he continues to hold a sizable lead in public polling over Republican Michael Whatley — but some privately say states like Michigan and New Hampshire need more resources.
Meanwhile, multiple Republican groups, not just SLF, have retreated from the state in recent weeks, effectively deciding that it’s no longer worth the money to boost Whatley’s campaign.
The Koch-aligned Americans for Prosperity Action left North Carolina off its $22 million list of future spending across key Senate contests, and Old North Action removed $6.5 million in ad reservations last month.
The Cooper campaign, however, is still treating the race as competitive, pointing to North Carolina’s closely divided electorate and the fact that President Donald Trump won the state in each of the past three presidential elections.
“North Carolina is a truly 50/50 state and Democrats haven’t won a US Senate race in 18 years. We can’t take anything for granted or our eye off the ball,” said Morgan Jackson, a senior adviser to the Cooper campaign. “DC is broken and we’re going to continue to run this race like we’re ten points down to ensure North Carolinians get the change they desperately need.”
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