U.S Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks to reporters following the weekly Republican policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2025.
Kayla Bartkowski | Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday that lawmakers in his chamber will remain in Washington, D.C., until they pass President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
“Senators return to Washington today and we will remain here until this bill is passed,” he wrote in an op-ed on Fox News.
The comments are a sign of the increasing pressure Thune faces to win over Republican holdouts who still oppose the megabill, ahead of a self-imposed July 4 deadline.
Thune wrote that he is “confident” the Senate will get the bill “across the finish line.”
Congress was set to be on recess the week of July 4, meaning this week was effectively the deadline for lawmakers to pass the package and get it to Trump’s desk.
But as the deadline nears, Thune is still drawing pushback from his conference, including a group of fiscal hawks who are concerned the package will explode the national debt.
For instance, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has repeatedly criticized the bill, warning it would add trillions of dollars to national deficits.
“What we should be doing is bending the curve of deficits down. In this reconciliation process, we’re not even coming close,” Johnson said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” earlier this month.
Despite the blowback from some GOP lawmakers, Thune has repeatedly signaled that he intends to stick to the deadline.
Thune said last week that he was hopeful his chamber would take up the bill by the middle of this week, Politico reported.
The White House has also repeatedly stood by the July 4 deadline.
“It’s imperative the Senate returns this historic piece of legislation on July 4th!” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote last week on social media site X.
