House Republicans caught off guard by Senate GOP changes to megabill

Senate Republicans are demanding that the House GOP revote on President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," with a series of changes to allow it to comply with Senate rules — and it's caught many lawmakers in the lower chamber off guard, reported Politico on Tuesday.

"If the flagged items aren’t deleted, the bill won’t enjoy special party-line treatment in the Senate and the filibuster would be enforced for passage of the 'big, beautiful bill' Republicans want to enact this summer," said the report. "In response, House GOP leaders plan to tee up a vote this week to nix specific provisions the Senate parliamentarian has identified as rule violations."

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise admitted that the full list of changes Senate Republicans demanded took House leadership by surprise.

"To avoid forcing the House to vote again on passage of the more than 1,000-page tax and spending package, the tweaks will be made through a fast-track maneuver inside the Rules Committee, which plans to add the changes into a resolution queuing up floor debate on a separate bill," said the report. "Once the House votes to adopt that procedural measure on the floor, the changes would automatically be made to the House-passed legislation."

While the article did not specify all the changes requested, a number of elements of the bill have already been flagged as a potential problem under the so-called "Byrd Rule," which requires all items in a budget bill to primarily serve a budgetary purpose.

One of those is the provision that bars federal judges under most circumstances from enforcing civil contempt penalties against Trump administration officials who defy court orders, which Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) already said is untenable. Another possible element that needs tweaking is a $116 billion "revenge tax" on foreign companies.

This comes at the same time members of the far-right House Freedom Caucus are themselves demanding a number of changes to the bill, including deeper spending cuts and the removal of a 10-year ban on states from regulating AI.