House Republicans are still fighting over a key spending bill that’s supposed to deliver on Donald Trump’s agenda — and right now, it’s going nowhere.
Rep. Andy Harris, the head of the House Freedom Caucus, told Newsmax in an interview that the bill “actually got worse overnight” and made it clear: “There is no way it passes today.”
That’s a major blow for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who’s been pushing hard to get this bill through before Memorial Day. But he’s working with a razor-thin margin. With no support expected from Democrats, just a few GOP defections could tank the whole thing.
Harris blamed changes to the bill, especially the return of a controversial tax break known as SALT — the state and local tax deduction — which mostly benefits high-tax blue states. “It upset a lot of conservatives,” he said, according to CNN.
Negotiations hit a wall late last night. Harris revealed that talks broke down just before midnight after a tentative deal — focused on cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse” in Medicaid — was suddenly pulled. “Conservatives are pushing for some balancing spending reductions,” he said.
Harris was blunt: “And when it comes to the floor, it’s going to fail. Hopefully it’ll fail in a way that keeps the negotiations and the bill alive, but it’s not going anywhere today.”
Speaker Johnson said he’s still talking to conservative holdouts, but as of now, the bill is stuck — and so is Trump’s agenda.
