Johnson attempts to hold together fragile GOP coalition ahead of key committee votes on Trump agenda

CNN

13-05-2025

House Republicans are heading into a blockbuster week for President Donald Trump's 'one big, beautiful bill,' as Speaker Mike Johnson attempts to stave off a revolt from any one faction of his conference that could tank the sweeping GOP agenda.
House lawmakers will return to Washington on Tuesday to kick off a series of high-stakes committee votes, key hurdles that Republicans must clear for Johnson to pass Trump's tax and spending cuts package by Memorial Day, as planned.
A slate of committees must vote to advance pieces of the legislation before it can be assembled into one bill. But there are already warning signs as Johnson and his leadership team are facing friction from both moderates and hardliners. With a slim majority, the speaker will need almost complete unity in his conference to advance the bill – and many Republicans expect Trump will need to weigh in to deliver the votes.
The committee markups will be the first opportunity for public debate from lawmakers on Capitol Hill since GOP leadership revealed key details of Trump's plan on contentious issues like cuts to Medicaid and food stamps, as well as a dense tax package. It'll also be the first time GOP lawmakers can huddle privately in Washington to plot their next steps.
At least two conservative hardliners, Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, have been publicly critical about what they see as inadequate changes to Medicaid, among other issues.
'I remain open-minded because progress has been made based on our forceful efforts to force change. But we cannot continue down the path we've been going down - and we will need SIGNIFICANT additional changes to garner my support,' Roy posted on X as part of a long list of complaints about the bill.
Then there's the so-called SALT Caucus — a loose coalition of roughly a half-dozen Republicans from high-tax states like New York, New Jersey and California who have sought to repeal the 2017 deduction cap on state and local taxes. GOP tax-writers proposed to triple the current cap on state and local taxes, from $10,000 to $30,000 per year, but it is limited to people who are making $400,000 or less. That $30,000 cap, however, has been a nonstarter for those members.
'Oh, hell no, no. We're here to fight for a much higher cap on the state and local tax,' Rep. Nick LaLota of New York told CNN last Thursday, when the tax committee was first discussing a $30,000 cap. LaLota posted on X after the text was unveiled Monday, reiterating that he remains a 'hell no.'
GOP Rep. Mike Lawler also said he cannot back the sweeping bill to implement Trump's agenda until more favorable terms over the key tax break are negotiated in the proposal.
'As I have said repeatedly, I will not support any bill that does not adequately lift the cap on SALT,' Lawler told CNN on Monday. 'This bill as written fails to deliver and will not have my support. I look forward to continuing to negotiate with leadership and the administration to provide real tax relief for my constituents.'
Further complicating matters: One of the GOP lawmakers who has stridently opposed the $30,000 cap is Rep. Elise Stefanik – a member of Johnson's leadership team.
Three key committees, including the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, will hold votes midweek to advance their own slices of Trump's big domestic package. That will be followed by another big vote by the end of the week from the fiscally conservative House Budget Committee. A full floor vote in the House could follow as soon as next week.
Democrats, meanwhile, are preparing for marathon committee meetings, particularly on the Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means panels on Tuesday. As Republicans have unveiled details of their plans, Democrats have continued to hammer the claim that millions could lose health coverage under the GOP's plan because of changes to Medicaid.
Republicans, however, dispute the Democrats' calculations because the congressional nonpartisan scorekeeper hasn't yet weighed in on their specific plan, which was just unveiled late Sunday.
Republicans have outlined big changes to Medicaid, such as work requirements for people who are physically 'capable' of working, and new $35 co-pays for those enrolled in the program. There's also a new restriction on state matching funds for states that allow undocumented immigrants to enroll in state health programs.
Still, the plans revealed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee late Sunday night did not include two of the biggest potential changes to Medicaid that Republicans were weighing — big cuts to the federal match rates for Medicaid or a push to turn federal dollars into effectively a block grant, in a policy that's known as a 'per capita cap.'
Many of the House GOP's more moderate members were elated by the committee's Medicaid plan — which they believe represented a big win over their hardliner counterparts.
Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie has told members that he believes his plan will reach the target of $880 billion in savings that Republicans called for in their budget resolution, and the congressional budget office confirmed it would in a letter Monday. But he has not yet said exactly how, because the panel is still awaiting key documents from the Congressional Budget Office that will help determine the bill's overall price tag.
As of Monday night, many Republicans were still digging into the details of the nearly 400-page tax bill. That plan includes some of Trump's big campaign promises, including scrapping federal taxes on tips, on overtime pay and on car loan interest. It's a big win for Trump, as is the name of the bill — 'The One, Big, Beautiful Bill,' adopting the president's moniker for the legislation.
As expected, it also includes Trump's demand for a debt limit hike, which would cost a total of $4 trillion to punt the problem for another few years. Congress needs to raise the debt limit before its August recess to prevent default and Trump hopes to do so using this bill, rather than strike a deal with Democrats.
The bill includes dozens of tax extensions from Trump's 2017 tax bill. There's also one relatively new idea – a so-called 'MAGA' savings account for kids under 18 years old. It's short for 'money account for growth and advancement,' which would create a new, flexible type of tax-free savings account for kids.