Reporter’s Notebook: House scrambles to align with Senate on framework for Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

The House tries again this morning to align with the Senate on a framework for President Donald Trump’s tax cut bill. 

A vote could come as early as the 10 a.m. ET hour. 

No alignment? No bill.

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President Donald Trump helped get House Republicans’ budget bill over the line. (Getty Images)

More than a dozen House conservatives balked last night, blocking Republicans from even voting on the blueprint. 

They spoke with House GOP leaders for more than an hour. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., also spoke with President Trump. Some conservatives met with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Senate committee chairs. 

The holdouts want more assurances that the Senate will cut more spending than they greenlighted in their revamped budget early last Saturday morning. 

What would unlock the votes today? Either an informal promise from the Senate to cut more. Or, the House could alter the Senate package and force the Senate to sync with the House.

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Mitch McConnell’s fundraising apparatus is changing hands to Thune allies. (Reuters)

An alternative is for the House to vote to add two steps to process – sending the House and Senate plans to a conference committee to finally blend the resolutions into one. 

Changing the bill and going to a conference committee are cumbersome, time-consuming steps. Rather than eight steps to finish the bill, that would create 10. The House is stuck on step 4. 

Thune has said the Senate can’t tackle another update and overnight vote series. It’s already done two versions. 

This underscores the wide divide between what the House wants to tackle – and what the Senate is capable of tackling. 

The House and Senate must approve the same measure at this stage in order to get to the bill itself. And these steps were supposed to be easier. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson leads a news conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington on Jan. 22, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/AP)

This also jeopardizes Johnson’s goal of finishing the bill by Memorial Day. 

It’s about the math: Johnson can only lose three votes. And he has north of a dozen nays now. 

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Moreover, the House and Senate are out of alignment. Whatever can advance in the Senate can’t pass the House and vice versa. That could imperil the ultimate passage of the bill itself.