Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks with reporters as the House prepares to consider the Senate’s version of President Donald Trump’s tax-and-spending bill, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, July 1, 2025.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Republican leaders in the House are racing to hold a vote Wednesday on President Donald Trump’s marquee domestic policy package, but weather woes and persistent GOP resistance threaten the near-term fate of the megabill.
Republicans started the formal debate over the voting procedure at roughly 11 a.m. ET.
Every vote on a bill in the House has its own rules that need to be approved independently, after a separate, dedicated debate and a vote.
The first vote determines what rules will govern final consideration of Trump’s megabill.
The Senate squeaked out passage on Tuesday, with Vice President JD Vance required to come in and cast the tie-breaking vote. Now lawmakers in the lower chamber must approve the Senate’s revisions.
House Speaker Mike Johnson can lose the votes of just three members and still pass the package on a party line. But as of early Wednesday, more than a dozen House Republicans were still opposed to it for various reasons.
Two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, and Warren Davidson, of Ohio, voted “no” on the House version of the bill in May and are likely to do so again now.
As Republicans stare down the self-imposed deadline to get the bill to Trump’s desk, the White House is hosting several groups of House Republicans for talks Wednesday, including hardliners who have expressed continued opposition to the bill.
A group of Republican moderates was also seen entering the White House compound Wednesday morning, NBC News reports, in a sign of the evolving talks.
These Republicans, many of whom represent districts carried by Democrats in presidential elections, pose another potential challenge for Johnson in his quest to pass the megabill.
Several of them have already expressed reservations about the Senate’s cuts to Medicaid, which are even deeper than those originally passed in the House.
In May, Johnson was at least able to offer last-minute concessions to the skeptical members in his conference to get them on board.
Now, any last minute changes automatically would send the bill back to the Senate for another vote, which would make the self-imposed July 4 deadline nearly impossible to reach.
Potentially further complicating Johnson’s ability to get his razor-thin majority on board are storms that hit the Washington area Tuesday night, causing widespread flight delays and cancellations, according to flight tracking site FlightAware.
Multiple members’ flights were delayed or cancelled, and more rain is expected Wednesday afternoon.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.
