Hitting snags, Trump pushes Senate to pass his big tax bill before July 4

USA Today

7 hours ago

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump's first order of business after returning from an overseas trip: shore up support for a tax bill he's been pushing to have on his desk by July 4.
Trump's administration said it still expected Congress to meet the ambitious timeline, even as the bill ran into hurdles in the Senate that could delay its potential passage.
'We hope so,' the president told reporters, as he left an East Room event.
The president's arrival in Washington after attending a NATO Summit in Europe capped a two-week period in which Trump's focus was on foreign affairs.
But with tensions in the Middle East abating and his tax bill teetering, Trump turned his attention back to the legislation he's nicknamed the 'Big Beautiful Bill.'
The legislation would increase the child tax credit, create investment accounts for kids, increase the estate tax exemption, boost border security and allow residents of high-tax states to write off more of their income. It would also add restrictions to Medicaid and food stamps.
Trump sought to rally support for the legislation at an event with workers his administration said would benefit from measures such as no taxes on tips or overtime.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a daily briefing that meetings and direct conversations with senators about the bill had been taking place behind the scenes.
'I saw some senators rolling out of the Oval Office the other day, and the president remains on the phones talking to his friends in the Senate when necessary,' she said. 'And when they call, he picks up the phone.'
She declined to say which senators Trump was trying to convince. But the president spoke this week with Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a key Republican holdout on the bill. Johnson said they met at the White House on June 23, which was a day before Trump left for Europe.
Trump previously hosted members of the Senate Finance Committee at the White House and has met multiple times over the last month with Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Senators Mike Lee of Utah and Bernie Moreno of Ohio attended his event at the White House.
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Vice President JD Vance has also urged his former Senate colleagues to vote yes on the bill. He attended Senate Republicans' weekly luncheon last week and met with Johnson at the Capitol on June 10, a person familiar with the conversation said.
The White House says it is optimistic it can get Johnson to a yes. He is one of several senators who have said they are worried the legislation, which extends tax cuts and expands breaks Trump signed into law in 2017, will add trillions to the federal deficit.
Other lawmakers in the president's party say that cuts to Medicaid in the bill run too deep.
Trump can only afford to lose three senators and still be able to pass the bill.
Trump chides GOP 'grandstanders'
The president directed Republican lawmakers to stay in town, and skip a planned recess heading into the July 4 holiday if they must, in order to get the bill to his desk on his preferred timeline.
'To my friends in the Senate, lock yourself in a room if you must, don't go home, and GET THE DEAL DONE THIS WEEK. Work with the House so they can pick it up, and pass it, IMMEDIATELY. NO ONE GOES ON VACATION UNTIL IT'S DONE,' he said on social media.
At his afternoon event on June 26, the president spoke out at 'grandstanders' who were derailing his agenda, without chiding any specific Republican lawmaker by name.
"I shouldn't say this, but we don't want to have grandstanders where one or two people raise their hand, 'we'll vote no.' And they do it to grandstand,' he said. 'Not good people. They know who I'm talking about. We don't need grandstanders.'
The event was largely focused on everyday Americans the White House brought on stage to put a human face on the proposed policies.
One of them was Maliki Krieski, a DoorDash driver from Ripon, Wisconsin, who works for the food delivery service to supplement her income and provide care for her son, a Type 1 diabetic. The 46-year old gift shop owner said she had previously shared her story with White House staff.
'No tax on tips is huge,' Krieski told USA TODAY after the event. 'Being able to put that money back into our pockets and be able to help our families be able to really grow the economy is extremely important.'
Tax bill hits another roadblock
Lawmakers are relying on a complicated budgeting mechanism to push the bill through without triggering a Democratic filibuster.
Senators had to revise a House-passed version of the bill on June 26 after the chamber's parliamentarian, Elizabeth McDonough, ruled that provisions of the bill that were critical to winning over conservative hardliners in the House would have to come out.
Among the provisions that were ruled out of bounds were several pertaining to Medicaid, a federal healthcare program for low-income and disabled individuals.
Another roadblock: Trump, Senate GOP face big setback on tax bill's Medicaid overhaul
Republicans in the lower chamber then said they would oppose the bill if areas of the bill were adjusted.
'I love President Trump and I really want to vote to pass his agenda in the Big Beautiful Bill when it comes back to the House from the Senate, but between the far left Senate Parliamentarian stripping out many of our good provisions and the special interest lobbyists sneaking in dirty poison pills like 10 year state moratoriums on AI, I'm currently a NO,' Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said in a post on X.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that his chamber would work around the clock to meet Trump's deadline.
'It doesn't make it easier, but you know me, hope springs eternal,' Johnson said.