(The Center Square) – The budget bill containing many of President Donald Trump’s fiscal priorities and campaign promises narrowly passed the House of Representatives early Thursday morning in a 215-214 vote, and now the White House is “suiting up” to get the bill through the Senate.
“Our team is suiting up for discussions with the Senate side of Capitol Hill,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday afternoon. “The president again said this morning he hopes to see this bill at his desk as soon as possible, and he’ll be engaged in the process to get it through the Senate just like he was to get it through the House.”
The president has been vocal about the passage of the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” for months, calling on Republicans to unite behind it. With narrow majorities in the House and Senate, Republicans need near-unanimous support for measures they want to see pass either chamber.
On Tuesday, Trump met with House Republicans in private to sway remaining holdouts. He met again with the House Freedom Caucus on Wednesday. Some of the House’s most conservative Republicans wanted greater reforms to programs like Medicaid, while Republicans from bluer states wanted to raise caps on deductions for the State and Local Tax.
The final bill ended up raising the ceiling on SALT deductions from $10,000 to $40,000 but leaving Medicaid cuts where they were, at around $880 billion (though some analysis has shown that the cost of Medicaid will still rise about 25% over the next decade).
The White House touted the House’s passage of the bill as another Trump victory.
“There were a lot of good faith negotiations in the Republican conference leading up to the final passage, but as always, President Trump came in at the end to bring all sides together and get this deal done,” Leavitt said.
Republican Senators have their own vision for the bill and changes they hope to make. House Republicans were able to secure $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, but the cuts weren’t substantial enough to fully offset additional costs. The bill will still add about $4 trillion to the federal debt, due in part to extending many provisions in Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, in addition to other tax reforms like removing taxes on tips and overtime pay.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-KY, known for his fiscal conservatism and libertarian leanings, has repeatedly critiqued the bill’s adding to the deficit.
“We can cut taxes and shrink the debt without adding to our national debt, which is already too high,” he wrote on X Tuesday.
Others, like Sens. Thom Tillis, R-Texas, Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., have expressed similar views.
Trump has said he wants to sign the bill into law by July 4.
“We can celebrate this passed the House for a couple of hours but now it’s time for the Senate to get to work,” Leavitt said, paraphrasing Trump. “He’s expecting them to get busy on this bill and send it to his desk as soon as possible.”
