Capitol agenda: Megabill hardball isn’t over yet

GOP fiscal hawks let their party’s tax and spending package advance toward a floor vote. But they’re threatening to tank President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” if they don’t see even more spending cuts and conservative policy changes.

Catch up: Republican hard-liners who sank the Budget Committee’s initial vote on the vehicle for Trump’s domestic agenda last Friday allowed the measure to proceed late Sunday after securing promises from GOP leaders that changes would be made before the legislation hits the House floor. According to Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), those changes could include speeding up enforcement of Medicaid work requirements, nixing green-energy tax perks enacted during the Biden administration and revoking Medicaid benefits from undocumented immigrants.

Speaker Mike Johnson huddled privately with the holdouts — Norman and Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Andrew Clyde of Georgia — just before the Budget panel reconvened Sunday night. Emerging from the confab, he described agreed-upon changes to reporters as “minor modifications.” The four conservatives went on to vote “present” rather than “no,” allowing the package to move forward. But the eleventh-hour tweaks are likely to have massive implications for already-wary moderates (more on that below).

The hard-liner headache isn’t going away. Roy and Norman also are on Rules, which represents the last hurdle the bill needs to clear to get a floor vote (a notice that went out after midnight says the panel will meet on the measure at 1 a.m. Wednesday). Norman on Sunday night said GOP leaders put their latest concessions in writing. Yet negotiations are ongoing — Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) predicted Sunday that talks “will continue on into the week and I suspect right up until we put this big, beautiful bill on the floor of the House” — and conservatives are far from fully satisfied.

“The bill does not yet meet the moment,” Roy said in a post on X, asking for a complete repeal of Biden-era clean-energy subsidies and deeper federal spending cuts to Medicaid. The House Freedom Caucus released a similar statement drawing its red lines.

Those are going to be tough concessions to make without backlash from the moderate Republicans in the conference, some of whom are pushing to protect more of the clean-energy tax provisions currently benefiting their districts and states.

Norman, Roy, Brecheen and Clyde were enraged when GOP leaders told them the conference did not have the votes for a full repeal of the Democrats’ 2022 climate law. One option GOP leaders and White House officials are discussing with the hard-liners is moving up the sunset date for certain green credits beyond what is now included in the megabill.

The Medicaid issue is even trickier. Hard-liners appear to be close to notching one big win with moving up the work requirements from 2029 to 2027. Yet as hard-liners make their push for more Medicaid changes, moderates are warning leaders to apply a lighter touch. Johnson is meeting with the Main Street Caucus Monday night, including with a group of moderates who requested to meet with the speaker over Medicaid, food aid and pension concerns in the bill.

Trump has been reluctant to make any moves that could be seen as cutting Medicaid benefits. But as talks lingered through the weekend, one thing became clear: “In the end, the president is gonna have to weigh in on where he stands” on the matter, according to one person involved in negotiations.

Speaking of the president: Keep an eye out for any White House meetings this week. Johnson’s leadership circle has debated at what point to ask the White House to invite the various factions of the conference to the Oval Office and get Trump involved.

What else we're watching:

— Crypto vote: For the second time in less than two weeks, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is preparing to advance landmark cryptocurrency legislation — starting with a procedural vote this evening. Senators struck a tentative deal last week and circulated revised text over the weekend. The latest legislative language largely mirrors the previous draft, with some small tweaks that would affect data sharing and the treatment of foreign crypto firms.

— Trump admin on the Hill: A slew of top Trump administration officials will hit Capitol Hill this week to defend their agencies’ budget proposals, including HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of State Marco Rubio and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. The Trump administration’s proposed deep budget cuts across agencies have drawn scrutiny even from some Republican lawmakers, and this week’s hearings will be the latest test of how much slashing they can stomach.

Jasper Goodman, Meredith Lee Hill and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.