Trump Policy Bill Stalls as Johnson Works to Wear Down G.O.P. Resistance
After a day of paralysis, the House remained frozen in place overnight as party leaders labored to address the concerns of Republican holdouts to the party’s major policy bill.
The House on Thursday was mired in paralysis, as Republican leaders toiled to put down a revolt within their ranks that had stalled their marquee policy bill and threatened to tank President Trump’s domestic agenda.
Dysfunction reigned on the House floor into the wee hours of Thursday morning, as a handful of Republicans withheld their votes to bring up the measure and Speaker Mike Johnson searched for a way to muscle through the sweeping legislation in the face of unified Democratic opposition.
The overnight revolt marked a setback for Republicans who have worked tirelessly in both chambers to finalize and pass the measure in the face of sharp internal divisions. More than four hours after the G.O.P. called a five-minute procedural vote to call up the bill, the party was still short of the votes to do so, and the vote remained open.
Mr. Johnson had spent all day Wednesday at the Capitol cajoling holdouts while Mr. Trump summoned some of them to the White House to twist their arms. But by early Thursday morning, they had yet to lock down the votes to move forward, particularly among a bloc of fiscally conservative Republicans who were dismayed by the bill’s cost and demanding changes that could derail it altogether.
“What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove???” Mr. Trump, clearly unhappy with how the events of the night were unfolding, wrote in a post on his social media platform. “MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!”
The legislation would extend tax cuts enacted in 2017 that are scheduled to expire at the end of the year, while adding new ones Mr. Trump promised during this campaign, on some tips and overtime pay, at a total cost of $4.5 trillion. It also would increase funding for the military and border security and cut nearly $1 trillion from Medicaid, with more reductions to food assistance for the poor and other government aid. And it would phase out clean-energy tax credits passed under President Joseph R. Biden Jr. that Mr. Trump and conservative Republicans have long denounced.