July 4 Deadline Looks Dicey as GOP Splits Over Big Beautiful Bill
“This bill as the Senate has produced—it is definitively dead,” Rep. Chip Roy said on Tuesday
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WASHINGTON _ Republicans are hustling to pass President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” by July 4, but internal squabbling over key provisions is threatening to blow up the timeline.
While Senate leaders are still projecting confidence, House conservatives are throwing up red flags over the bill’s size, spending, and tax provisions. The gap between the two chambers is growing, and fast.
“This bill as the Senate has produced—it is definitively dead,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said bluntly on Tuesday. “If it were to come over to the House in anything resembling its current form—the IRA provisions, the deficit damage, some of the other policy changes that we think are concerning—there’s no way, no way that that moves through.”
Roy isn’t alone. A bloc of fiscal conservatives in the House have been sounding the alarm on certain changes they feel has created a bloated, policy-compromised package. Their concerns range from spending levels to leftover language tied to the Inflation Reduction Act— something they’ve long pushed back on.
Still, the Senate is pushing ahead. One GOP lawmaker, speaking on background, told 24Sight News that Senate Minority Whip John Thune is “determined to meet the July 4 deadline” and “seemed pretty confident” they’d get it across the finish line.
That confidence might be overly optimistic. Beyond ideological objections, there’s also trouble brewing over the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction. Any move to shrink the SALT cap past what was negotiated and passed out of the House could spark pushback from lawmakers representing high-tax states like New York and New Jersey who fought tooth and nail for an increase during negotiations in the lower chamber.
But the White House is directing members to floor the gas, with Chief of Staff Susie Wiles telling senators to get it done next week and “make it something the House will pass,” during a closed-door lunch on Wednesday.
But that’s easier said than done, with conservatives threatening to sink the bill over spending, and moderates wary of tax fallout.
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Seen this movie before...Chip Roy and his buddies went on at length before the House passed the bill onto the Senate, vowing "no support" for the legislation as written...ah, but wait, the holdouts get phone calls from tRump, and — guess what? — they're all on board, and give tRump/Johnson their votes.
And, here comes another summer rerun for your viewing pleasure.