The House is at a standstill as House Republican leadership works to sway holdouts on the “big, beautiful bill,” leaving a vote series open for over two hours.
The vote on an amendment to the procedural rule sits at 215-212 as of 4:30 p.m., ready to gavel down, but House leadership is keeping the vote open as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) deliberates with several fiscal hawk holdouts who are upset with the Senate’s changes to the reconciliation bill.
House Republican rank-and-file members were instructed to return to their offices for “about a hour,” around 3:15 p.m. At that time, Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Neal Dunn (R-FL), Andy Harris (R-MD), Dan Meuser (R-PA), Andy Ogles (R-TN), Scott Perry (R-PA), and Chip Roy (R-TX) had not cast a vote on the amendment.
The full chamber is expected to vote on the rule, a procedural measure to unlock a final vote on the bill, on Wednesday. However, the House Rules Committee skipped a step when closing its almost 12-hour hearing Tuesday night to get President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” one step closer to the president’s desk, with the committee forgetting to order the previous question as part of the rule.
If this is not corrected, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) would not have had a way out once he began the debate on the bill. An amendment, currently being voted on, can fix the mistake.
Johnson eventually left the floor while the vote trickled on, ignoring reporters’ questions and talking on his phone. Freedom Caucus and like-minded holdouts gathered off the House floor to discuss a path forward, as many returned from the White House with their opposition to the bill unchanged.
Another reason for the delay, leadership sources told the Washington Examiner, was to accommodate members who were delayed traveling to Washington because of the weather on Tuesday, though it was not immediately clear which members.
Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought arrived on Capitol Hill to meet with holdouts. Leaving the meeting almost half an hour later, Vought told reporters they are “making good progress.”
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House leaders have pitched the reconciliation bill as the “best product we could produce,” and sources have called it a “legislative sweet spot” given the ideological differences between the House and the Senate.
Biggs, Dunn, and Meuser voted for the bill as of 4:15 p.m.
