GOP must race for new 'big, beautiful bill' to slash costs before midterms, top House Republicans warn
FIRST ON FOX: House Republicans who are spearheading the charge of another "big, beautiful bill" say they only have a short window of time to pass a massive piece of legislation aimed at lowering costs for Americans across the board.
"We need to see good movement within the month of February that puts us on a path to achieve this by late spring, early summer," Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital.
President Donald Trump led Republicans through passing the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act last year, sprawling legislation that made good on versions of several Trump campaign promises like reducing taxes on tipped and overtime wages, extending his 2017 tax cuts, and surging more money toward his immigration crackdown.
The budget reconciliation process makes such a feat possible by lowering the Senate's threshold for passage to line up with the House's own simple majority line, empowering the party holding the levers of power in Congress to pass sweeping fiscal changes to U.S. law.
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A large contingent of Republican lawmakers, including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have said they want to use that process again sometime this year. Pfluger's RSC, the largest caucus in the House GOP, released a framework last month with recommendations on a bill that would lower costs in areas like housing, healthcare and energy.
Pfluger told Fox News Digital that affordability would likely be a "major driver" of another such GOP bill, but said he was still working on getting input from other areas of the House Republican Conference.
"I'm sure that there will be refinement as we hear feedback from the different groups. But we do believe that it's a solid framework. We believe that it's a winning issue based on good policy," Pfluger said.
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But both he and House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, have acknowledged they will need to work fast — particularly with the 2026 midterm elections coming in November.
"I would be embarrassed as a leader and as a conservative if our conference and Republicans in Washington won't rally in these 10 or 11 months we have before November, where we still have this window of opportunity to strike," Arrington said in a forthcoming episode of the RSC's "Right to the Point" podcast, which Fox News Digital got an exclusive first look at.
He said elsewhere in the podcast that Republicans "probably have a three-month window" to take meaningful action, lining up with Pfluger's own prediction that action should happen by springtime.
Pfluger said he hoped to get the first key step done this month after sending instructions on what kind of cuts to enact to various House committees.
But Republicans are currently dealing with a one-seat majority in the House until a special election to replace former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., takes place in March.
That could get reduced back down in April after a special election for a blue-leaning seat to replace New Jersey's new Gov. Mikie Sherrill. Republicans won't get more breathing room until early August, when California holds a special election for the GOP-leaning seat that was held by the late Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif.
Their first reconciliation bill notably passed with all but two House Republicans on board.
"We have a path. We've dug that path, and we should just do it for the things that we can all agree on," Arrington argued.
He said a second bill "doesn't have to be as big and comprehensive, it needs to be targeted on the things that were either left undone, things that fell out, that we should put back in… like not allowing tax dollars to go to transgender procedures and not allowing the fungible federal dollars to support states that use their state Medicaid dollars to fund illegals."
But it's not yet clear that such policies could make it in or gain the support of moderate Republicans who are wary of an election cycle that's expected to be an uphill climb for the GOP.
Pfluger, however, told Fox News Digital that he hoped they could even get some Democratic support if the bill stayed focused on affordability measures.
"I believe that we are going to produce something that is going to make it very difficult for Democrats to vote against," he said. "I would hope that we would have something on the board that would get Democrat support in some cases."