Congress
GOP leaders launch their last-ditch megabill whip job
With just hours until they want to start voting, House Republican leaders and White House officials have launched an all-hands-on-deck push Wednesday to get the GOP megabill through the House and to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Several groups of House Republican lawmakers who have aired grievances with the Senate-passed version of the domestic policy poll are meeting Wednesday morning, and Speaker Mike Johnson is making his way their those groups — including speaking with a particularly crucial group of conservative hard-liners.
Multiple groups of holdouts are expected to visit the White House later Wednesday to meet with Trump, who has demanded the bill get done by July 4.
Skeptical members on across the GOP’s ideological spectrum said Wednesday they were still reviewing the 887-page bill passed by the Senate.
“I’m still looking at it,” said Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), a suburban member who has raised concerns about Medicaid cuts, while Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a former chair of the hard-right Freedom Caucus with deep fiscal misgivings, said, “I’m still thinking about it.”
Republican leaders are intent on keeping the bill moving as quickly as possible, cognizant that any significant delays could only embolden the intraparty holdouts. Asked about voting plans Wednesday morning, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said he expected final passage “sometime today.”
That could change if the holdouts band together and decide to withstand the lobbying blitz. Republicans are closely eyeing early procedural votes that would set up the megabill for final floor consideration. House leaders want to take those votes as early as 11 a.m. Wednesday, but that could slip if GOP whips conclude there’s not enough support to keep the bill moving forward. With full attendance, four GOP defections could sink the bill.
“If there’s four [GOP ‘nos’], there’s going to be 20 — and it’s going to be a jailbreak,” said one House Republican granted anonymity to candidly describe internal dynamics.
Asked if he had the votes to advance the bill Wednesday, Johnson said, “We’re working on all that right now.”
A White House pressure campaign started ramping up Monday night, when Trump, Vice President JD Vance and senior administration officials began a new round of public praise for the sweeping legislation — which includes a $5 trillion debt limit hike and deficit spending that has made many congressional Republicans anxious.
The White House officials have sought to tamp down the deficit concerns by encouraging members to ignore the costs of extending the 2017 tax cuts that are set to expire at the end of this year. Trump on Wednesday touted the bill’s “GROWTH, which will be the primary reason that the Big, Beautiful Bill will be one of the most successful pieces of legislation ever passed.”
“Our Country will make a fortune this year, more than any of our competitors, but only if the Big, Beautiful Bill is PASSED!” he wrote on Truth Social. “Republicans, don’t let the Radical Left Democrats push you around.”
Leaders are also still dealing with objections from dozens of members concerned about the Medicaid provisions in the bill. The Senate deepened the cuts to the joint federal-state program in some respects, including by curtailing medical provider taxes — a key state financing mechanism.
Johnson, for his part, needs to find a way to assuage grumpy members without agreeing to changes to the Senate-passed bill — which would require potentially weeks of additional negotiations and sending the bill back across the Capitol for more action. He has already floated the potential of doing at least one and possibly two other party-line policy bills before the end of the Congress next year.
“We’re working through everybody’s concerns and letting them know this is the best possible product we can produce,” Johnson said Wednesday.
Stormy weather rolling through the mid-Atlantic has been another major complication. Many members saw their flights back to Washington canceled or delayed Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. Johnson said he was “worried about flights” and acknowledged timelines could slip.
Democrats, who are threatening to force procedural votes to delay the megabill’s consideration, said they expected to have their members here soon enough. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio) was spotted at the Capitol Wednesday after missing weeks of votes due to a medical issue.
“Mother Nature’s not cooperating, but people are going to be here,” said Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the minority whip.
Congress
Tennessee GOP Rep. Andy Ogles says Muslims ‘don’t belong’ in America
Rep. Andy Ogles said on Monday that Muslims have no place in America, an Islamophobic attack from a sitting member of Congress.
“Muslims don’t belong in American society. Pluralism is a lie,” the Tennessee Republican posted Monday morning on X.
It is not the first bigoted social media post Ogles has made.
He has also said that “America and Islam are incompatible,” and has introduced legislation to halt immigration from Muslim-majority nations.
A spokesperson for Ogles referred Blue Light News to an interview the member of Congress did with Fox News following a shooting in Austin, Texas, in which he said that “mass Islamic immigration, legal or illegal, has transformed America and brought destructive consequences.”
Ogles’ post comes as Republicans gather in Florida for their annual retreat and could serve as a distraction as the party seeks to hash out its agenda ahead of the midterms.
Spokespeople for the offices of the top three House Republicans — Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer — did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ogles’ legislation, the Halt Immigration from Countries with Inadequate Verification Capabilities Act, would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act by refusing admission to immigrants from some majority-Muslim countries like Iran, Libya and Syria. North Korea, Venezuela and Yemen are also named in the bill, which does make exceptions for U.S. citizens.
The bill, which is unlikely to become law, has already garnered the support of Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.), who said “we must protect America from jihadists.”
Fine has also come under fire for Islamophobic remarks recently.
Last month, the Florida Republican faced criticism for implying that dogs were preferable to Muslims. At least one Democrat called for Fine to be censured.
A spokesperson for Fine did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Congress
Capitol Agenda: Republicans face new Trump ultimatum
House Republicans are descending on President Donald Trump’s Doral resort Monday for their annual policy retreat, with hopes of sketching out their legislative priorities before the midterms.
Trump may have just upended that plan.
The president on Sunday said he wouldn’t sign any bills until Republicans pass the sweeping elections overhaul known as the SAVE America Act. Paired with a new Middle East War, surging oil prices and persistent internal turmoil threatening the House GOP’s razor-thin majority, the kickoff of the party’s South Florida gathering is looking anything but sunny.
Here’s a preview of what’s coming at the retreat:
— TRUMP’S SAVE AMERICA SCRAMBLE: The president is set to speak to Republicans Monday at 5 p.m. We’ll be watching the extent to which he leans into his SAVE America Act ultimatum and another demand that Republicans add restrictions on transgender surgeries and mail voting. Trump’s request to expand the bill may trigger more GOP infighting and further weaken a push to skirt the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster to pass it.
— RECONCILING RECONCILIATION: Many House Republicans hope to leave the retreat with clarity on another major question: whether they’ll try to pass a second party-line budget reconciliation bill. Speaker Mike Johnson promised some members he would try, but the effort would require near-total GOP unity and could well be DOA in the Senate. Some Republicans think the need for more war funding could jumpstart a fresh reconciliation push given opposition by Senate Democrats.
— COMMITTEE CHAIRS SPEAK: Committee chairs are set to discuss their legislative plans for the year Tuesday afternoon.
House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith is expected to talk through a list of bipartisan health care and tax priorities. House Financial Services Chair French Hill said he’s planning to discuss his panel’s reconciliation priorities, as well as unfinished housing and crypto bills he’s working out with the Senate.
House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino said he was planning to share details about how the DHS funding lapse is degrading the department’s preparedness and discuss reauthorization bills under his panel’s jurisdiction.
Republicans expect House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole and Rep. Ken Calvert, who chairs the funding panel that oversees the Pentagon, to discuss an anticipated White House request for more military funding in light of the Middle East war.
— ROUNDING OUT THE WEEK: Republicans on Tuesday are set to hear from White House deputy chief of staff James Blair, 2024 Trump campaign co-manager Chris LaCivita and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett. Conservative commentator Scott Jennings will brief them on GOP messaging, while podcast host Ben Shapiro will address the “speed of new media” in a Wednesday morning session.
What else we’re watching:
— Housing bill’s House hurdles: The Senate is set to pass bipartisan housing legislation as soon as this week, but House conservatives are gearing up to fight it. At issue is a part of the bill that would restrict the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency through 2030. The House has passed a permanent CBDC ban, and on Friday 32 House Republicans told leaders in a letter that the housing bill would be “dead on arrival” without it. The White House has said it wants to pass the Senate bill as-is.
— AI-boosted campaign ad: Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who is campaigning to reclaim the South Side of Chicago seat he once held, is launching a new TV and digital ad Monday featuring an endorsement from former Rep. Bobby Rush delivered partly via artificial intelligence. The spot initially shows Rush speaking in his actual voice, weakened from a battle with throat cancer. He then continues speaking in a restored version of the voice he had decades ago.
— Rudd nomination: The Senate will vote to advance the nomination of Lt. Gen. Joshua Rudd to be a general Monday. If confirmed, he’s set to lead the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command.
Katherine Hapgood, Shia Kapos and Calen Razor contributed to this report.
Congress
House Republicans face internal and external headwinds as they gather to map out 2026
DORAL, Florida — House Republicans head to their annual policy retreat Monday in south Florida. Their outlook for the remainder of 2026 is anything but sunny.
GOP lawmakers were already under pressure to address cost-of-living issues ahead of the November midterms. Now President Donald Trump’s decision to launch a war in the Middle East is spiking energy prices and threatening to strain the federal budget just as new signs emerge that the domestic economy is weakening.
Internally, turmoil continues to wrack the GOP’s ultra-narrow majority. Renegade members are routinely bucking leadership — for instance, hauling in Trump’s attorney general for testimony on the Jeffrey Epstein probe. And last week’s primaries generated a fresh trio of lame-duck Republicans who leaders fear might no longer feel compelled to show up for votes on a regular basis.
On top of it all, Trump has focused his legislative energies on matters far afield from what many Republican lawmakers want to tackle. In recent days, he has renewed his push for a long-shot elections bill, adding in additional provisions targeting transgender rights for good measure.
The members gathering at Trump’s Doral resort Monday are seeking to keep the focus on what they can control — with plans to discuss a new party-line budget reconciliation bill as well as so-far elusive options to lower health care costs, fund the Department of Homeland Security and advance stalled housing legislation.
“We have to discuss exactly how we advance the president’s agenda for the last eight months before the election, and we have to set those plans in motion,” Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), chair of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, said in an interview.
Trump will address the lawmakers Monday evening as they wait for cues on the president’s policy priorities for the pre-midterm period.
House GOP leaders expect a serious battle to unfold during the retreat over whether to pursue another reconciliation bill — something Speaker Mike Johnson has promised some of his members he will pursue. But it would require almost complete unity among Republicans and faces the distinct possibility it could be DOA in the Senate.
It doesn’t help that Trump himself threw cold water on the idea last month, saying Republicans have “gotten everything passed that we need” ahead of the midterms. Since then, the Middle East War has threatened the low gas prices the president often touts and Friday’s jobs report showed much weaker-than-expected hiring.
Instead, Trump has spent much of his energy stumping for a bill that would not comply with the filibuster-skirting rules of the budget reconciliation process — the SAVE America Act, which would toughen proof-of-citizenship standards for voting. The House passed two versions of the bill, but Trump is now asking for additional provisions barring most mail voting and gender reassignment surgeries for minors.
The president threatened Sunday to not sign any more bills unless Congress passes his version of SAVE America first — and House GOP leaders are bracing for a debate over the legislation to erupt at the retreat, with Trump sure to make his demands in person Monday night.
Besides Trump’s address Monday, lawmakers are set to hear from top White House political aide James Blair, former Trump campaign co-chair Chris LaCivita and National Economic Council director Kevin Hassett. Conservative commentator Scott Jennings will brief them on GOP messaging Tuesday, while podcast host Ben Shapiro will address the “speed of new media” in a Wednesday morning session.
Committee chairs are set to discuss their legislative plans for the year Tuesday afternoon, followed by a closed-door meeting of senior elected leaders. Majority Leader Steve Scalise described the sessions in an interview as “members talking to members about planning out the rest of the year.”
“We’ve been working incredibly close with President Trump this whole last year-and-a-half to make life more affordable for families, and there’s more we want to do this year and beyond,” he added.
Republicans also expect House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole of Oklahoma and Rep. Ken Calvert of California, chair of the funding panel that oversees the Pentagon, to discuss an anticipated White House request for military assistance and other possible items.
Some Republicans think the need for more war funding could jumpstart a fresh reconciliation push, given expected Democratic opposition in the Senate. One of those optimistic members is House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington of Texas, who said in an interview he would pair new military spending with cuts to Pentagon programs that need to be “retooled.”
Top party leaders have also instructed committee chairs to revisit items that were dropped from the megabill enacted last summer as they consider what might get folded into a new piece of legislation. But some remain highly skeptical this effort will ever gain traction.
House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said in an interview Thursday that he doesn’t “see a pathway” for it.
“Maybe people can prove me wrong,” he said.
Elsewhere, Johnson is under pressure to advance stalled legislation to crack down on lawmaker stock trading, a farm bill, and possibly an energy permitting overhaul and a highway bill. All have some bipartisan support but constitute major legislative lifts.
Smith is expected to talk through a list of bipartisan health care and tax priorities he hopes to advance to the House floor and send over to the Senate. House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill (R-Ark.) said in an interview he’s planning to discuss his panel’s reconciliation priorities, as well as unfinished housing and cryptocurrency market structure bills — both of which are currently stuck in negotiations with the Senate.
The retreat also opens on the 24th day of an ongoing DHS shutdown impacting TSA, FEMA and other security operations. House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) said he was planning to share details about how the funding lapse is degrading the department’s preparedness, as well as a number of reauthorization bills under his panel’s jurisdiction.
Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan, the No. 4 GOP leader, said another major topic will be how Republicans should be selling last summer’s party-line tax and spending package and what can be done “between now and the end of the year to lower costs for the American family, bring down prices, bring more manufacturing over, bring costs down and [put] more money in their pocket.”
But pursuing any partisan legislative undertaking will require near-complete unity in the GOP ranks.. With only one defection permitted under the current party split, Johnson has to worry about members like Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who forced disclosure of the Epstein files, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who led the effort to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Johnson also can’t afford any attendance issues: A handful of members are dealing with health problems, including Rep. Neal Dunn of Florida, who was thought to be considering resignation before announcing he’d serve out his term. There’s the growing cadre of lame ducks, too, which now includes Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas, who missed votes Thursday after admitting to an affair with a staffer who later died by suicide. Texas Reps. Dan Crenshaw and Wesley Hunt also lost primary races last week.
The House GOP’s math problem could improve following a special election Tuesday for the seat vacated by former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), which is expected to go to another Republican. But with more than 20 candidates in the GOP primary, the race could go to a monthlong runoff.
Republican leaders are also banking on having the votes to expel a Democrat, Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida, who has been federally indicted on corruption charges. But they have to first wait until the House Ethics Committee holds a hearing on the matter, and those proceedings were delayed until later this month after Cherfilus-McCormick lost her lawyer.
Democrats, meanwhile, could attempt to counter her expulsion by attempting to expel Gonzales, who says he plans to finish out his term. House Democratic leaders are also pushing their members to show up and make every vote as uncomfortable for the GOP as possible.
“There’s a lot of jobs I don’t want in this town,” Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, the Democratic Caucus chair, said at a recent news conference. “And Republican whip is definitely high on that list.”
Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
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