> House Speaker Johnson says 'we're going to deliver the big, beautiful bill'
House Speaker Johnson says 'we're going to deliver the big, beautiful bill'
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House Republicans were straining late Wednesday to advance President Donald Trump's tax and spending cuts package despite GOP leaders having spent the afternoon and evening working furiously to convince skeptical holdouts to send it to his desk by the Fourth of July deadline.
The roll call vote was being held open for more than an hour as several Republicans refused to give their votes. With few to spare from their slim majority, the outcome was in jeopardy.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had recalled lawmakers to Washington, eager to seize on the momentum of the bill's passage the day before in the Senate and vowed to press ahead.
“Everybody wants to get to yes,” Johnson said during an interview on Fox News as the voting was underway.
Quickly convening for the vote on the more than 800-page bill was risky gambit, one designed to meet Trump's demand for a holiday finish.
Republicans have struggled mightily with the bill nearly every step of the way this year, often succeeding by the narrowest of margins, only one vote.
Their slim 220-212 majority, leaving little room for defections.
Several Republicans are balking at being asked to rubber-stamp the Senate version less than 24 hours after passage.
A number of moderate Republicans from competitive districts have objected to the Senate bill's cuts to Medicaid, while conservatives have lambasted the legislation as straying from their fiscal goals.
It falls to Johnson and his team to convince them that the time for negotiations is over.
They will need assistance from Trump to close the deal, and lawmakers headed to the White House for a two-hour session to talk to the president about their concerns.