LEILA FADEL, HOST:
A key House committee voted late last night to advance a multitrillion-dollar package with many of President Trump's legislative priorities, like extending tax cuts and sending more money to the U.S. southern border. The House speaker says it's a sign of progress, but there's still some big hurdles in unifying his conference for a full vote on the bill later this week. Joining us now from Capitol Hill is congressional correspondent Barbara Sprunt. Good morning, Barbara.
BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: Hey, good morning.
FADEL: OK. So I feel like I'm having deja vu. Weren't we just talking about a budget committee hearing that's crucial to getting much of President Trump's agenda done?
SPRUNT: Yeah, that's right. Well, deja vu for us and certainly for members of that committee. On Friday, a handful of Republicans blocked the bill...
FADEL: Right.
SPRUNT: ...Despite the very public push from President Trump for members of his party to unite around it. The package, after all, has a lot of priorities for the president - measures like no taxes on tips or overtime, a boost in funding for border security, the extension of the 2017 tax cuts. So House leadership basically spent the weekend in discussions with the members who tanked that vote on Friday. In fact, House Speaker Mike Johnson was behind closed doors with them just ahead of the vote last night, which was essentially a do-over for the committee. The speaker doesn't usually come to a vote like that, so it was a sign of how high the stakes were.
FADEL: OK.So those talks moved the needle at least enough for it to advance out of that committee late last night. What changed?
SPRUNT: Well, Speaker Johnson told us that minor modifications were being discussed with the group. One area is accelerating work requirements for Medicaid. The original holdouts were concerned that those requirements for the program wouldn't kick in soon enough, in their view. Here's what Johnson had to say.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MIKE JOHNSON: I think it's the desire of every Republican - always has been - to make work requirements real and actionable as soon as possible. We learned in the process that some of the states would - needed a longer lag time to add in the implementation of the new policies. So we're going to push it as far as we can. I mean - forward, I mean, to make it happen sooner - as soon as possible.
SPRUNT: He correctly predicted that those holdouts would vote present, which is not a yes, but not a no. And he said that that counts for him as a win. Texas Republican Chip Roy was one of those members who voted present. He said he did so out of respect for the president and also so that the bill can move forward and they can keep having opportunities to make more adjustments this week. Now, the House Freedom Caucus, which he's a part of, said the bill, quote, "does not yet meet the moment," despite the work that happened over the weekend. So there's still a ways to go before they're satisfied.
FADEL: OK. Now, Johnson has a strict timeline here. He said he wants to get this passed by the end of the week. Can he meet that deadline?
SPRUNT: Well, that is the question. He said that it's likely it will go to the Rules Committee by Tuesday or Wednesday, which is the next step in the process. That's where they can incorporate these last-minute changes to the bill, these compromises that have taken place between the parties over the weekend. It's likely that the full GOP conference will be briefed about those concessions and compromises at their weekly meeting, and everything is a give-and-take, you know? So if leadership gives a little more to the hard-liners who want to see a major deficit reduction, that means they have to pay for other priorities by making cuts elsewhere. So - and that may not go down so well with the more moderate members in swing districts. So it's all a give-and-take.
And it's not just negotiations on things like Medicaid. It's also going to be about Republicans in blue states like New York who want to see a higher cap on deductions for state and local taxes. That's been a big thing in the past couple of weeks and is still being ironed out. Johnson maintains that even though there's work to do, he's convinced they'll be able to pass this before Memorial Day, which was his self-imposed deadline. So we shall see.
FADEL: That's NPR's Barbara Sprunt. Thank you, Barbara.
SPRUNT: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
