House Republicans returned to the floor late Wednesday night to try to push President Donald Trump’s megabill through the chamber, after the process ground to a halt for hours earlier in the day.
A vote to approve the rules of tonight’s debate got underway shortly before 10 p.m. ET. If the rules are approved, the chamber will begin a debate expected to last several hours, before holding a final vote on the megabill that will likely stretch into the wee hours of Thursday morning.
The outcome of the vote is far from certain. Numerous rank-and-file members have dug in on their opposition to the tax-and-spending package throughout the day, casting doubts about just how much pressure Speaker Mike Johnson can exert on them to back the bill.
Both moderates and conservative hardliners demanded changes to a Senate version of the bill.
Republican leaders in the House struggled all day to corral enough votes to move Trump’s marquee domestic policy package forward to a final vote.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks to the press, as Republican lawmakers struggle to pass U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping spending and tax bill, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 2, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon | Reuters
Another hardline opponent of the bill, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., indicated earlier Wednesday that there were still “probably 10 NO’s at the moment.”
Massie was one of two Republicans — along with Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio — who voted against Trump’s bill in May, before the Senate implemented its own broad changes to the package.
Davidson said late Wednesday that he would be voting “Yes” this time around, Punchbowl News reported.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., talks with reporters before a House Republican Conference meeting with President Donald Trump on the budget reconciliation bill in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, May 20, 2025.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
A key step in helping skeptical Republicans get to yes has been direct intervention by Trump himself.
The White House hosted several groups of House Republicans for talks earlier in the day Wednesday, including hardliners who oppose the final bill.
Trump also deployed a team to Capitol Hill that included Russ Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, to meet with holdouts.
While conservative holdouts to Trump’s bill have drawn the most attention, there is also a group of moderate Republicans who have big problems with the Senate’s cuts to Medicaid.
Those cuts were even deeper than the ones originally passed by the House.
Many of these Republicans represents a district typically carried by Democrats in presidential elections. This gives the White House fewer leverage points over them than Trump might have for a member whose constituents voted Republican.
The Senate squeaked out passage of its version of Trump’s megabill on Tuesday, with Vice President JD Vance required to come in and cast the tie-breaking vote. Now lawmakers in the lower chamber must approve the Senate’s revisions.
In May, Johnson was at least able to offer last-minute concessions to the skeptical members in his conference to get them on board.
Now, any last minute changes automatically would send the bill back to the Senate for another vote, which would make the self-imposed July 4 deadline nearly impossible to reach.
— CNBC’s Greta Reich contributed reporting
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.