GOP rallies behind debt limit hike in Trump tax bill, speedy timeline

Top Republican lawmakers emerged from a meeting at the Treasury Department on Tuesday saying the House and Senate are moving closer together on key aspects of how to unlock President Trump’s ambitious legislative agenda, including whether to include a debt ceiling increase and how quickly they can move.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) met with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Director of the National Economic Council Kevin Hassett and top congressional tax writers in an attempt to shrink the gap between the two chambers’ competing bills. 

“A lot of progress,” Johnson told reporters when he arrived back at the Capitol. “The House and Senate are very closely aligned.”

Thune sounded a similar note, reporting back on the other side of the Capitol that the meeting was a “a very constructive, productive conversation.”

“[We’re] kind of homing in on these final issues we have to decide,” he added.

That cooperation will be key to getting Trump’s agenda passed. Republicans are aiming to use a process called budget reconciliation, which will let them move forward with only GOP votes but requires near unanimity among Republicans. Marrying the two chambers’ budget resolutions is a crucial next step.

As of Tuesday, Republicans appear to be approaching the same page when it comes to whether to use the reconciliation package to raise the debt limit, which had been one of the thornier issues dividing the two chambers. 

Both Johnson and Thune said the party is moving closer to agreeing that the debt limit should be in a single “big, beautiful bill,” as Trump has dubbed it, after the House included it in its blueprint but the Senate left on the cutting room floor. 

“I think there’s consensus forming there,” the Senate GOP leader told reporters after returning to the Capitol. 

The South Dakota Republican also argued earlier Tuesday, during the weekly Senate GOP policy luncheon, that keeping a debt ceiling hike included in any reconciliation would be the cleanest way of getting it done. 

“We want to try to attach it to reconciliation. [That’s] the plan,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a Thune ally. “[That’s the] best way to get it done with Republican votes.”

Still, time could be of the essence. The Congressional Budget Office is slated to announce this week its latest estimate of when the U.S. will default on its debt if Congress doesn’t act on the debt ceiling.

According to multiple sources, Thune also told Republicans during the Tuesday luncheon that he wants the upper chamber to consider a potential compromise budget resolution by the week of April 7 — the final week of work for the chamber before a two-week recess during Passover and Easter.

Johnson — who had criticized an earlier timeline floated by some senators — was pleased by that plan.

“I think Leader Thune announced earlier that they expect to vote on their resolution the week of April 7, and that's great progress,” Johnson said.

"We’ll have to see how their, how the timetable works out, how their final vote goes, but we’re gonna be very aggressive in the House, as we’ve already demonstrated,” he later added, noting that there was “no daylight” between the two chambers, including on timing for the path forward.

Still, a number of potential speed bumps remain.

Headlining those are potential Medicaid cuts, which multiple Senate Republicans have cried foul over in recent weeks, with some taking those worries directly to leadership.

The House GOP’s budget resolution directs the Energy and Commerce Committee to find at least $880 billion in cuts, which the Congressional Budget Office said cannot be achieved without slashing the social safety net program — prompting concerns among some Republicans in both chambers.

When asked what he hoped emerged from Tuesday’s high-level sit-down, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was curt. 

“No cuts to Medicaid,” he said.

Hawley has been among the loudest voices in support of nixing potential Medicaid cuts. He and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) went so far as to support a Democratic amendment during the vote-a-rama for the Senate’s smaller budget resolution last month that would eliminate tax cuts for wealthy Americans if cuts to Medicaid are included.

The $880 billion is part of a $1.5 trillion floor for cuts in the resolution. Adding to the potential headaches, multiple conservatives in the Senate GOP ranks view the $1.5 trillion in spending cuts included in the House’s budget resolution as insufficient.

“There’s a lot of moving parts to this. We’ve got folks over here and folks over here,” Thune said ahead of the Treasury Department sit-down, extending out his right and left arms outward before meeting them in the middle. “Somehow, we’ve got to get everybody to here.”

Returning from the meeting at the Treasury Department, Johnson said “we got to get more details to be ironed out" but "the vision is aligned and becoming more and more aligned.”

“So I think the two chambers are getting very close,” he added.

Republicans also remain hopeful that they will be able to use the so-called current policy baseline in order to make the tax cuts permanent, but they are seeking guidance from the Senate parliamentarian before they go all the way down that road.

Under this idea, the current tax rates could be extended into the future indefinitely without adding to the deficit. The 2017 tax cuts are set to expire at the end of the year, and under the current scoring system, they would cost roughly $4.5 trillion over the next decade — the figure laid out in the House-passed budget resolution.

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) told reporters that talks are underway with the parliamentarian, and that members have no fallback option in place should she rule against that avenue. 

“I've talked to her about it because this is a complicated process,” Hoeven said. “We believe we can use the current policy, and that's our intent because we want to make the tax cut permanent. She has not opined on that yet, and I'm not gonna speak for her.”

“We're going to do it. We're gonna make sure that it works, that we can do it that way. That's our approach,” he continued. “We're not going in with the idea that it's not going to work.”

Johnson said he had “no news” on the current policy baseline front, deferring to the parliamentarian.

“We know that they were, they're talking about that with a parliamentarian and they're gonna see what they can do on their side with regard to that and then we'll talk about it with House members,” he told reporters.

The parliamentarian ruling will have significant ramifications for the legislation. If she determines that current policy baseline can be utilized, some hard-line House Republicans could be turned off since they are not in favor of the gimmick — though last-minute lobbying from Trump has helped get the ranks in line. But if it is ruled impermissible, GOP lawmakers will be back at the drawing board for how to make the tax cut extension permanent.

For now, top Republicans are cautioning members that the final product will not be adored by all in the GOP ranks. 

“We just need to narrow the gap between the House and the Senate. We just are making slow but steady progress to do that,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). “People need to come to grips with the fact that not everybody’s going to be happy.”