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Mike Johnson optimistic about Trump's mega-bill: "We're almost there"

After getting past a key vote in the Budget Committee, the House speaker finds himself narrowing positions between moderate and fiscally conservative Republicans. 

Johnson on Capitol Hill/ Roberto Schmidt.

Johnson on Capitol Hill/ Roberto Schmidt.AFP

Joaquín Núñez
Published by
Joaquín Núñez

Mike Johnson showed his optimism with the "One Big, Beautiful Bill," the mega-bill with much of Donald Trump's agenda. After a few weeks of stalling, the legislation made it past a key vote in the Budget Committee of the House of Representatives and nears a floor vote. In turn, and with the aim of ironing out the differences, Johnson scheduled a new meeting with the moderates.

In the midst of negotiations, Johnson has a deadline of Memorial Day (Monday, May 26) to have the text approved.

"We’re almost there, and I’m very optimistic that we will find the right equilibrium point to get this bill delivered. It’s going to be a big thing for the country," the House speaker said as he entered Congress, anticipating that the 1,100-plus-page bill "is going to be a great thing for the country."

On the still existing friction between moderate blue-state Republicans and fiscal hawks, Johnson advanced that he hopes to have a consensus on the changes before a vote in the Rules Committee, which is due early Monday.

"None of that has been ultimately and finally decided because, as everyone knows around here, we have to build consensus around all those ideas. We’re going to have a lot of discussion among the conference over the next 48 hours, and that’s all part of it. All I can say is, Stay tuned," he added.

To unlock negotiations, Johnson met again with moderate Republicans on Monday night.

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This are the major roadblocks to Trump's bill

The House speaker finds himself juggling to content both moderate blue-state Republicans and fiscal hawks. Because of the slim Republican majority in the House, both groups have leverage to demand modifications.

The first group's demand has to do with the limit on state and local tax (SALT) deductions. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA), only up to 10,000 can be deducted. In other words, if a person previously paid 15,000 in state and local taxes, they could deduct all of that money. With the aforementioned Trump law, the cap remained at 10,000.

Therefore, Republicans representing high-tax blue districts, such as New York or California, are pushing to raise that limit considerably, proposing to take it up to 40,000 or 50,000.

On the other side, conservatives argue that raising that limit would simply subsidize states with high tax burdens, taking away incentives to lower them.

In turn, the fiscal conservatives' request has to do with the extent of Medicaid reforms. The main gripe is that the 80-hour-per-month requirement will go into effect at the beginning of 2029, considering it too late.

The current Energy and Commerce Committee proposal seeks to set work requirements for healthy adults between the ages of 19 and 64 without dependents, requiring them to work at least 80 hours a month or perform 80 hours of community service or other programs.

In this context, Johnson announced that changes would be made to the text to gain the support of the missing legislators.
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