Don’t count on the budget reconciliation bill passing the House today. That appeared to be the message from leading House Freedom Caucus members, who said they were working on a deal with the White House and House GOP leadership.
“We are greatly encouraged by the progress that’s been made in the last 24 hours,” said House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md.
The entire Republican conference met with President Donald Trump at the Capitol on Tuesday, where he encouraged them to wrap up negotiations on his “big, beautiful bill,” which would fulfill campaign promises such as extending his first-term 2017 tax cuts and funding border security.
HERE’S WHERE @freedomcaucus STANDS ON BUDGET RECONCILIATION
Doesn’t sound like the bill will be passed today. They’re meeting with leadership and the White House.
The White House is scheduled to meet with fiscal hawks and House Republican leadership on Wednesday as progress for the “one big, beautiful” reconciliation bill is stalling.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) are heading to the White House for a 3 p.m. meeting with President Donald Trump, which will include members of the Freedom Caucus, multiple sources confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
This is the second major step Trump has taken to try to unify the Republican conference after his speech to the House GOP on Capitol Hill Tuesday failed to sway several key holdouts from both the Freedom Caucus and SALT Caucus.
The meeting at the White House comes after talks between the fiscal hawks and leadership appeared to fall apart overnight. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who has been leading the Freedom Caucus opposition to the bill, said early Wednesday that conversations were “not good.”
After President Donald Trump’s Tuesday meeting with the House GOP Conference, moderate Republicans are hoping that his stern command to unify will bring holdouts into line to vote for the budget reconciliation bill.
“Listen, the president spoke in a very strong way about the need to quit screwing around and pass this bill. And that did irritate some members who were there,” Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., told The Daily Signal after a press conference in which he promoted the bill.
If passed, the bill would fulfill a number of Trump’s campaign promises, such as funding border security and extending his first-term 2017 tax cuts.
However, major disagreements remain. House Republican fiscal hawks are demanding that the bill implement work requirements in Medicaid, while blue state Republicans are asking for a higher cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions against federal taxes, which lessen the effects of blue states’ high tax rates.
Washington — President Trump met Tuesday with House Republicans as leaders try to push a massive budget package containing the president’s legislative priorities over its last hurdle before it can get to the floor.
The president put pressure on members to fall in line as the party’s dueling factions have threatened to upend the plan as they set down apparent red lines that don’t align with the demands made from other members. When he arrived on Capitol Hill, Mr. Trump suggested that any Republican who doesn’t back what he refers to as the “big, beautiful bill” would be “knocked out so fast,” citing a handful of “grandstanders.”
“It’s the biggest bill ever passed, and we’ve got to get it done,” Mr. Trump said.
President Donald Trump fired three Democrats serving on the Consumer Product Safety Commission after the Department of Government Efficiency visited the agency on Thursday.
The firings leave the independent agency with two Republicans, acting CPSC Chairman Peter Feldman and Douglas Dziak, on the five-person board. It is unclear if their firings were related to the wide DOGE government spending cuts.
The agency’s former chairman, Alex Hoehn-Saric, who was also fired, said Friday that “Trump is attempting to illegally remove me from the CPSC” along with his colleagues Mary Boyle and Richard L. Trumka Jr., the latter of whom ignited controversy in 2023 over weighing a ban on gas stoves.
The Trump administration has fully implemented the defunding of the UNFPA that it announced back in March and announced today that no new funding will the directed to it. And the pro-abortion agency is unhappy.
As LifeNews reported then, Trump has ordered the defunding of the UNFPA, a United Nations population control agency which promotes abortions worldwide.
This is a continuation of his pro-life policy from his previous administration. In 2017, Trump signed an executive order defunding the UN population group because it pushes abortions on other countries and has worked with China for decades to implement its forced abortion population control policies.
Trump officials previously informed the UN Population Fund that nearly all of its grants would be discontinued. That defunding has taken place – with some $335 million in taxpayer funds yanked from the pro-abortion UN agency. Now, Trump officials have informed the UN group that new funding will not take place in future years.
Last week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, R, signed the “Riley Gaines Act” into law, prohibiting biological males from participating in female sports at public schools and colleges across the state.
The legislation also mandates that students use restrooms, locker rooms, and sleeping quarters that correspond with the sex on their birth certificates.
The act, officially known as Senate Bill 1, is named after former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, an outspoken advocate for protecting women’s sports. Gaines gained national attention after competing against transgender swimmer William “Lia” Thomas and has since campaigned for similar legislation in other states.
Kemp emphasized the importance of the new law in protecting the integrity of women’s sports.
“As the parents of three daughters, Marty and I know just how important it is to keep our children safe and to give them the best possible start in life,” Kemp said.
In a video stunt published by the political action group ‘Led By Donkeys,’ a 98-year-old WWII veteran rode a Sherman tank over a Tesla Model 3 vehicle.
“My name is Ken Turner and I’m 98 years old. And I served in the British Army in World War II,” Turner said.
“I’m old enough to have seen fascism the first time around. Now, it’s coming back. Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, is using his immense power to support the far-right in Europe, and his money comes from Tesla cars. Well, I’ve got this message for Mr. Musk. We’ve crushed fascism before and we’ll crush it again,” he continued.