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The House Rules Committee has teed up President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” for a chamber-wide vote Wednesday after a nearly 12-hour-long session debating the massive piece of legislation.
It now heads to the entire chamber for consideration, where several Republicans have already signaled they’re concerned with various aspects of the measure.
Just two Republicans voted against reporting the bill out of committee – Reps. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Chip Roy, R-Texas, conservatives who had expressed reservations with the bill earlier on Tuesday. No Democrats voted to advance it, while the remaining seven Republicans did.
The majority of Republican lawmakers appear poised to advance the bill, however, believing it’s the best possible compromise vehicle to make Trump’s campaign promises a reality.
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President Donald Trump’s agenda is working its way through Congress. (Fox News/Getty Images)
“This bill is President Trump’s agenda, and we are making it law. House Republicans are ready to finish the job and put the One Big Beautiful Bill on President Trump’s desk in time for Independence Day,” House GOP leaders said in a joint statement after the Senate passed the bill on Tuesday.
The House Rules Committee acts as the final gatekeeper before most pieces of legislation get a chamber-wide vote.
Democrats attempted to delay the panel’s hours-long hearing by offering multiple amendments that were shot down along party lines.
They criticized the bill as a bloated tax cut giveaway to wealthy Americans, at the expense of Medicaid coverage for lower-income people. Democrats have also accused Republicans of adding billions of dollars to the national debt, chiefly by extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.
“I don’t know what it means to be a fiscal hawk, because if you vote for this bill, you’re adding $4 trillion to the debt,” Rep. Gwen Moore, D-Calif., said during debate on the measure.
“Republicans have gone on TV for months and months and months solemnly insisting to the American people that this bill is going to cut the debt, that this will not hurt anybody on Medicaid, just those lazy bums and, you know, unworthy people.”
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But Republicans have said the bill is targeted relief for middle and working-class Americans, citing provisions temporarily allowing people to deduct taxes from tipped and overtime wages, among others.
“If you vote against this bill, you’re voting against the child tax credit being at $2,200 per child. At the end of this year, it will drop to $1,000. That makes a huge impact to 40 million hardworking Americans. And it’s simply, when they vote no, they’re voting against a $2,200 child tax credit, and they’re okay with $1,000,” House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., said.
“If you listen to the Democrats here, they say this is all about billionaires and millionaires. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime work. How many millionaires and billionaires, Madam Chair, work by the hour?”
Ways & Means Chair Jason Smith defended the bill during debate in committee. (Tom Williams)
The bill numbers more than 900 pages and includes Trump’s priorities on taxes, the border, defense, energy and the national debt.
An initial version passed the House in May by just one vote, but the Senate has since made multiple key modifications to Medicaid, tax cuts and the debt limit.
Moderates are wary of the Senate measures that would shift more Medicaid costs to states that expanded their programs under ObamaCare, while conservatives have said those cuts are not enough to offset the additional spending in other parts of the bill.
Several key measures were also removed during the “Byrd Bath,” a process in the Senate where legislation is reviewed so that it can be fast-tracked under the budget reconciliation process – which must adhere to a strict set of fiscal rules.
Among those conservative critics, Reps. Scott Perry, R-Pa., and Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., introduced resolutions to change the Senate version to varying degrees.
Ogles’ amendment would have most dramatically changed the bill. If passed, it would have reverted the legislation back to the House version.
Perry’s amendments were aimed at tightening the rollback of green energy tax credits created by the former Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act.
Another amendment by Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., would have restored certain Second Amendment-related provisions stripped out by the Byrd Bath.
Speaker Mike Johnson said he wants the House to take up the bill immediately. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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Any changes to the legislation would have forced it back into the Senate, likely delaying Republicans’ self-imposed Fourth of July deadline to get the bill onto Trump’s desk.
The full House is expected to begin considering the bill at 9 a.m. ET Wednesday.
Sometime that morning, House lawmakers will vote on whether to begin debating the bill, a procedural measure known as a “rule vote.”
If that’s cleared, a final vote on the bill itself is expected sometime later Wednesday.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., conceded on Tuesday evening that poor weather in Washington that forced a number of flight delays could also weigh on Wednesday’s attendance – depending on how many lawmakers are stuck outside the capital.
“We’re monitoring the weather closely,” Johnson told reporters. “There’s a lot of delays right now.”
With all lawmakers present, Republicans can only afford to lose three votes to still advance both the rule vote and the final bill without any Democratic support.