U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz is one of holdouts blocking Trump's 'big beautiful bill' from floor
A handful of hardline fiscal conservatives have been threatening to block the bill through procedural votes that lead up to the tax bill's passage, many of them critical that the bill is not cutting spending by enough. Spartz said on X in the late afternoon of July 2 that while she will end up supporting the bill itself, she plans to vote against the "rule vote," a final procedural vote that determines the terms of the debate on the floor.
"I'll vote for the bill, since we need to make it happen for our economy & there are some good provisions in it," she wrote shortly before 5 p.m. "However, I will vote against the rule due to broken commitments by (House Speaker Mike Johnson) to his own members."
"I'm on Plan C now to deal with the looming fiscal catastrophe," she continued.
This is a key agenda bill for Trump: It makes permanent his 2017 tax cuts, drastically cuts spending on Medicaid and SNAP and boosts funding for border security. It's been controversial in each chamber, passing by only one vote each time.
The fiscal hawks take issue with the fact that the Senate version of the bill may add more to the federal deficit than the House's version.
Live updates: House in limbo on vote over Trump's sweeping tax bill package
The "broken commitments" Spartz is referring to is Speaker Johnson previously telling caucus members, according to Spartz, that he wouldn't bring a bill to the floor that adds to the deficit beyond a certain amount. The Senate version, she wrote July 1, exceeds that agreement by about half a trillion dollars.
Trump and his team, according to media reports, are working behind the scenes to bring some lawmakers around.
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