House GOP leaders watch Senate anxiously as they work to secure votes
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Diverging Reports Breakdown
Anxious Republicans turn to Trump amid divisions over ‘big, beautiful bill’
Republicans in the House and Senate are anxiously watching whether President Donald Trump will take a more aggressive approach in corralling GOP lawmakers. The Senate is working through a massive piece of legislation advancing Trump’s agenda on tax, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt. Trump has been pushing Republicans on the bill in public, addressing it at back-to-back events on Thursday and Friday while also posting on his Truth Social platform. Some House Republicans want him to be as forceful as he was when their chamber passed the bill by just one vote in May. But some Republicans in the upper chamber are resistant to Trump’s involvement in the legislation. “His arm is getting warmed up, and we’ll bring him in here in the ninth inning, and he’s going to throw heat,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. “I mean, I’m not voting for something unless I know what I’m voting on,” Sen. Rick Scott, R, Florida, said.
Republicans in the House and Senate are anxiously watching whether President Donald Trump will take a more aggressive approach in corralling GOP lawmakers in favor of his “big, beautiful bill.”
“President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party, isn’t he? I think it’s incumbent upon him to make sure everybody in the Senate understands that this is a signature piece of legislation that essentially 77 million Americans voted for,” Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital.
The Senate is working through a massive piece of legislation advancing Trump’s agenda on tax, immigration, energy, defense and the national debt — which the president has said he wants on his desk by the Fourth of July.
Trump has been pushing Republicans on the bill in public, addressing it at back-to-back events on Thursday and Friday while also posting on his Truth Social platform.
148 DEMOCRATS BACK NONCITIZEN VOTING IN DC AS GOP RAISES ALARM ABOUT FOREIGN AGENTS
Congressional leaders have said they’ve been in near-constant contact with Trump or his White House staff about the legislation. Indeed, numerous White House officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Vice President JD Vance, to push Senate Republicans to stay on course.
But some House Republicans want him to be as forceful as he was when their chamber passed the bill by just one vote in May. Trump summoned multiple groups of Republicans to the White House on several occasions in the lead-up to that vote, and even made a rare trip to Capitol Hill to gin up support within the House GOP.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., told Fox News Digital that when the House was going through the motions of advancing the mammoth legislation, it “looked all but impossible” to get it across the finish line.
But it was because of Trump, he said, that the bill succeeded.
“He’s our closer in the bullpen right now,” he said. “His arm is getting warmed up, and we’ll bring him in here in the ninth inning, and he’s going to throw heat. And so far, he’s pitched a no-hitter.”
It’s worth noting that several senators who have expressed concerns about the bill have spoken individually with Trump.
But Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital showed varying degrees of enthusiasm when asked whether the president should repeat the intense involvement he had in the House.
When asked by Fox News Digital whether it’s time for the president to get involved, Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas., said, “That’s up to the White House. It’s up to the president.”
But Roy added, “I think the Senate needs to deliver, and I think the Senate ought to make good on the agreement that the majority leader had with us and with the speaker to work with us to achieve that level of spending cuts.”
Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Penn., said Trump is “always involved, so he’ll stay involved because we do want to get it done by July 4th.”
Rep. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis., said he was not being kept aware of how involved Trump was, but said the president’s deal-making skills would likely be needed.
“I mean, I think it’s gonna take that type of horsepower to kind of bring everybody together,” Fitzgerald said.
But some Republicans in the upper chamber are resistant.
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“It doesn’t matter what he says, of course not,” Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital. “I mean, I’m not voting for something unless I know what I’m voting on.”
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Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., wouldn’t say whether he believed that Trump should put a finger on the scales more. But he told Fox News Digital that he was appreciative of the effort that Thune and Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, had put into getting feedback from Senate Republicans, but said that at a certain point, lawmakers just needed to vote on the bill.
“We have cussed and discussed this bill for a long, long time, and at some point you move from careful, rational deliberation into the foothills of jackassery,” Kennedy said. “And that’s where we are now. It’s time to vote. If people are unhappy, they can offer amendments.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump Administration Updates: House G.O.P. Hunts for Votes on Policy Bill
“I’m told that that I have been told,” he said, “this seems like it may be” or “I don’t have the answer to that” “This is not going to be the first time I’ve said that,’“this is not the last time I have said that.” He said that he had been told that he was not sure whether the man had not claimed to be going to the place he said he was going to go. He said he has been told he would not know where the man was going, but that he did not know what he would say. He has said that the man has said he would be told where he would go, but he has also said he is not sure what he is going to do, or what he will do. He had said he could not say where he will go, or how he would feel, or even what he might feel.
A federal court ordered the Trump administration on Tuesday to maintain custody of migrants on a deportation flight that immigrants’ lawyers said was headed to South Sudan, a transfer the judge said appeared to violate an injunction he issued in April.
“I am not going to order that the plane turn around,” said the judge, Brian E. Murphy of the Federal District Court in Boston. Instead, he said, any migrants in Department of Homeland Security custody must not leave U.S. control once the plane landed, at least until a hearing Wednesday to determine whether they had received adequate due process.
The order capped a tumultuous hearing hastily called by the judge, during which Trump officials said they could not say where the flight was or where it was going.
Judge Murphy repeatedly expressed concerns that the administration had violated his order not to deport immigrants to countries where they are not from and may face danger without giving them enough time to challenge their removal. And he warned that officials involved in the deportations who were aware of his order, including potentially the pilots of the plane, could face criminal sanctions. “Based on what I have been told,” he said, “this seems like it may be contempt.”
The question of whether the Trump administration defied his previous order added to the remarkable series of faceoffs it has had with the judicial system as President Trump has aggressively pursued his promises of mass deportations. In case after case, judges have rebuked the administration for not allowing adequate due process, and Trump officials in turn have questioned the authority of courts to hear such disputes and even called for the impeachment of judges who rule against it.
Immigration lawyers at the hearing on Tuesday said at least two migrants had been told they were going to be deported to South Sudan, a violence-plagued country in Africa that the State Department advises Americans not to travel to.
After a break in the proceedings to gather information, a lawyer for the Justice Department, Elianis N. Perez, said that one of the migrants, who is Burmese, was returned home to Myanmar, not South Sudan. But she declined to say where the second migrant, a Vietnamese man, was deported, saying it was classified information. It was unclear how many other migrants might be on that deportation flight.
“Where is the plane?” Judge Murphy asked.
“I’m told that that information is classified, and I am told that the final destination is also classified,” Ms. Perez said. She said the government had not violated any court orders because the man had not claimed to be fearful of removal.
Judge Murphy asked what authority the government was using to classify the location of the deportation flight. “I don’t have the answer to that,” she responded.
After a second break, Joseph N. Mazzara, the Homeland Security Department’s acting general counsel, said that he was not sure whether the information was classified but that he did not know the plane’s current location in any event.
Earlier in the hearing, lawyers from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project had said they had been told Monday that a client of theirs, the man from Myanmar, was informed that he would be deported to South Sudan. When the lawyers checked on the man on Tuesday, they said, they were told that he had already been deported. Elsewhere, they said, a Vietnamese man “appears to have suffered the same fate.”
They said they wanted Judge Murphy to demand that the Trump administration return the migrants. The lawyers included a pair of documents in the filing, including one Department of Homeland Security document that listed South Sudan as the removal destination for one of the immigrants.
“This morning, they learned from a detention officer via email that N.M.,” the migrant from Myanmar, “was removed this same morning to South Sudan,” the lawyers said.
In response to that claim, Judge Murphy said he believed it was likely a violation of his previous order issued in April, when he directed the Trump administration not to deport immigrants to countries other than their own without first giving them 15 days’ notice to raise concerns that they might face danger there.
Judge Murphy later said that if N.M. was in fact removed to Myanmar rather than South Sudan, his deportation may not have violated his April order. But he still told the administration to be prepared on Wednesday to address the details of his removal.
The chaotic hearing on Tuesday carried echoes of another one in March, presided over by Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court in Washington. Judge Boasberg ordered that planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador turn around. They did not. Unlike the migrants in Judge Boasberg’s case, who were deported using the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used wartime law, the plaintiffs in the case before Judge Murphy have a “final order of removal,” meaning their status has already been considered by an immigration court.
The Trump administration has increasingly turned to countries to take on migrants from places around the globe instead of just their own citizens. In the early months of the administration, officials have already deported migrants from the Eastern Hemisphere to Costa Rica and Panama, and have sent migrants from Venezuela to El Salvador under the wartime act.
“We are actively searching for other countries to take people from third countries,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a cabinet meeting at the end of April. He said the United States had pushed the deals and asked countries whether they would take back nationals from other countries “as a favor to us.”
“And the further away from America, the better, so they can’t come back across the border,” he said.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Mr. Mazzara resisted a request from the plaintiffs’ lawyers that deportees not be shackled while aboard the plane. He said that there were “at least one rapist and one murderer” aboard the flight, and attributed that claim to what he had been told by other administration officials.
Judge Murphy’s April order has already been the subject of much dispute with the Trump administration.
On Friday evening, a federal appeals court that sits over Judge Murphy had rejected the Justice Department’s request to put the ruling on hold as the administration sought to challenge it. And immigration lawyers have asked Judge Murphy several times to enforce his order on the Trump administration.
Last month, the lawyers claimed that four men were sent from a U.S. naval base in Cuba to El Salvador without proper notice. And earlier this month, they raised alarms to Judge Murphy that the administration was planning to deport a group of immigrants to Libya without sufficient notice.
Judge Murphy warned the government that the flight to Libya would have violated his order, as well.
“If there is any doubt — the court sees none — the allegedly imminent removals, as reported by news agencies and as plaintiffs seek to corroborate with class-member accounts and public information, would clearly violate this court’s order,” he wrote.
Over the weekend, the lawyers raised another concern, saying that a Guatemalan man had been sent to Mexico without proper notice or a chance to express his fears about being sent there.
After initially claiming that the man had in fact been told that he was being flown to Mexico, the administration abruptly reversed itself, acknowledging that it could not find any officials who had in fact given the man the proper notice.
The hearing scheduled for Wednesday before Judge Murphy will consider his claims as well.
Carol Rosenberg contributed reporting.
House GOP approves framework for Trump’s big budget bill after intense talks win over GOP holdouts
NEW: House Republicans approve their budget framework by a vote of 216-214. Speaker Mike Johnson worked into the night to satisfy GOP holdouts. The plan seeks as much as $1.5 trillion in cuts to federal programs and services. A failed vote would have been a major setback for the party’s agenda in D.C., experts say.. Democrats, in the minority, lack the votes to stop the package, but they have warned against it. The House action was a crucial next step in a lengthy process to unlock the centerpiece to the president’s domestic agenda of tax cuts, mass deportations and a smaller federal government.. The package also allows some $175 billion for budget increases with some of the money going to pay for the deportation operation during his first term, while potentially adding the new ones during his second term, he promised during his campaign in 2016. It also includes the first term of his first presidential term, in 2024, when he promised to pay no taxes on the wealthy.
Johnson stood with Senate Majority Leader John Thune early in the morning at the Capitol and said President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which seeks as much as $1.5 trillion in cuts to federal programs and services, was on track. The speaker had abruptly halted voting Wednesday night.
WATCH: Trump pauses many of his tariffs but raises rate on China
“I believe we have the votes,” said Johnson, R-La. “We’ll take the next big step.”
Thune, R-S.D., also tried to assure House conservatives that many GOP senators are aligned with their pursuit of spending reductions.
“We certainly are going to do everything we can,” Thune said.
The 216-214 vote pushed the budget plan forward, one more milestone for Johnson, who could only lose a few detractors from his slim Republican majority. A failed vote, particularly as the economy was convulsing over Trump’s trade wars, would have been a major setback for the party’s agenda in Washington.
Trump, at a black-tie fundraising dinner this week, had admonished Republicans to “stop grandstanding” on the budget.
By Thursday morning, Trump had shifted his tone, posting on social media that it’s “coming along really well.”
“Biggest Tax Cuts in USA History!!! Getting close,” Trump said.
The House action was a crucial next step in a lengthy process to unlock the centerpiece to the president’s domestic agenda of tax cuts, mass deportations and a smaller federal government. There are weeks, if not months, ahead, on a final product, with more votes in Congress. Democrats, in the minority, lack the votes to stop the package, but they have warned against it.
But by Wednesday afternoon, the outcome was in flux. At least a dozen conservative Republicans, if not more, were firmly against the plan. Several of them, including members of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, made the unusual move of walking across the Capitol to meet privately with Senate GOP leaders to insist on deeper cuts.
As night fell, Johnson pulled a group of Republicans into a private meeting room as House proceedings came to a standstill. They stayed into the night hashing out alternatives, and were back at it in the morning.
Johnson said he spoke with Trump for about five minutes while the GOP meeting was taking place. The speaker said they were trying to figure out the minimal number of cuts and savings “that will satisfy everyone.”
“The president is very anxious for us to get this done,” Johnson said.
But House GOP conservatives, including several of those who met with Trump this week, were concerned that the Senate GOP’s blueprint, approved last weekend, did not cut spending to the level they believe necessary to help prevent soaring deficits.
“The Math Does Not Add Up,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, posted earlier on social media.
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the caucus chair, led others to met with the senators.
“All we can do is make sure that they understand where we’re coming from and how close we want to work with them to get to the final product,” Thune said afterward.
But he panned the idea of the House sending back an amended version, which would require another potential all-night voting session like the one senators endured last weekend. “We can’t do that,” Thune said.
The House and Senate are at the beginning phase of a process that will take weeks, if not months, as they turn their budget resolutions into legislative text — a final product with more votes ahead later this spring or summer.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the budget plan is reckless and callous, proposing cuts to give tax breaks to the wealthy.
“We’re here to make it clear,” Jeffries said. “Hands off everyday Americans struggling to make ends meet.”
Central to the budget framework is the Republican effort to preserve the tax breaks approved in 2017, during Trump’s first term, while potentially adding the new ones he promised during his 2024 campaign. That includes no taxes on tipped wages, Social Security income and others, ballooning the price tag to some $7 trillion over the decade.
The package also allows for budget increases with some $175 billion to pay for Trump’s deportation operation and as much for the Defense Department to bolster military spending.
It would be partly paid for with deep cuts to domestic programs, including health care, as part of the $2 trillion in reductions outlined in the House version. Several Republican senators have signaled they are not willing to go that far.
To clip costs, the Senate is using an unusual accounting method that does not count the costs of preserving the 2017 tax cuts, some $4.5 trillion, as new spending, another factor that is enraging the House conservatives.
Two Republican senators voted “no” last weekend. Maine Sen. Susan Collins objected to Medicaid cuts in the House’s framework, while Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul argued the whole package relied on “fishy” math that would add to the debt.
The plan would also raise the nation’s debt limit to allow more borrowing to pay the bills. Trump had wanted lawmakers to take the politically difficult issue off the table. With debt now at $36 trillion, the Treasury Department has said it will run out of funds by August.
But the House and Senate need to resolve their differences on the debt limit, as well. The House GOP increases the debt limit by $4 trillion, but the Senate lifted it to $5 trillion so Congress would not have to revisit the issue again until after the midterm elections in November 2026.
With Trump’s trade wars hovering over the debate, House Republicans tucked a provision into a procedural vote that would prevent House action — as the Senate has taken — to disapprove of Trump’s tariffs.
Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Stephen Groves, Leah Askarinam and Matt Brown contributed to this report.
WATCH: Johnson vows to try again after GOP holdouts block Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ budget bill
House Speaker Mike Johnson vows to try again to approve a Republican budget framework. He worked into the night to satisfy GOP holdouts who refused to advance trillions of dollars in tax breaks without deeper spending cuts. A failed vote, particularly as the economy was convulsing over Trump’s trade wars, would be a major setback for the Republican agenda in Washington. Trump shifted his tone, posting on social media that it’s “coming along really well.’’ “Biggest Tax Cuts in USA History!!! Getting close,” Trump said. “Stop grandstanding!” Johnson said as he left a late-night meeting with the GOP lawmakers.“The Math Does Not Add Up,’ Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said he would not support it. ‘We’re still at the beginning of a process that will take weeks, if not months, as they turn their budget resolutions into legislative text,’ Democratic leader Jeffries said.
Watch Johnson’s remarks in the player above.
Even a hefty push from President Donald Trump couldn’t heave the package to approval. Johnson was forced to abandon Wednesday’s scheduled action as the Republican hard-liners left him without enough support and risked upending what the president calls the “big, beautiful bill,” which is central to his agenda of tax cuts, mass deportations and a smaller federal government.
But Thursday morning, Johnson stood with Senate Majority Leader John Thune at the Capitol and assured they were on track seeking as much as $1.5 trillion in cuts.
“I believe we have the votes,” said Johnson, R-La., ahead of floor action. “We’ll take the next big step.”
Thune also sought to assure the conservatives that many GOP senators are aligned with their pursuit of spending reductions.
“We certainly are going to do everything we can,” Thune said.
Pushing the budget framework forward would log another milestone for Johnson, who can only lose a few detractors from his slim majority. A failed vote, particularly as the economy was convulsing over Trump’s trade wars, would be a major setback for the Republican agenda in Washington.
“Stop grandstanding!” Trump had admonished Republicans during a black-tie fundraising dinner at the National Building Museum earlier in the week.
Trump told the Republicans, “Close your eyes and get there.”
Thursday morning, Trump shifted his tone, posting on social media that it’s “coming along really well.”
“Biggest Tax Cuts in USA History!!! Getting close,” Trump said.
But by Wednesday afternoon, the outcome was in flux. At least a dozen conservative Republicans, if not more, stood firmly against the plan. Several of them, including members of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, made the unusual move of walking across the Capitol to meet privately with Senate GOP leaders to insist on deeper cuts.
As night fell, Johnson pulled a group of Republicans into a private meeting room as House proceedings came to a standstill. They stayed into the night hashing out alternatives.
Johnson said he spoke with Trump for about five minutes while the GOP meeting was taking place. The GOP speaker said they’re trying to figure out the minimal number of cuts and savings “that will satisfy everyone.”
Options include amending the Senate bill or having a conference committee work out the differences, among others. “There’s a few different ideas on the table,” Johnson said.
“The president is very anxious for us to get this done,” Johnson said as he left a late-night meeting with the GOP lawmakers.
But House GOP conservatives, including several of those who met personally with Trump at the White House this week, remained concerned that the Senate GOP’s blueprint, approved last weekend, does not slash spending to the level they believe is necessary to help prevent soaring deficits.
“The Math Does Not Add Up,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, posted on social media. He said he would not support it.
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chair of the Freedom Caucus, led others to met with Thune and other top Senate Republicans.
“All we can do is make sure that they understand where we’re coming from and how close we want to work with them to get to the final product,” Thune said afterward.
But the Senate GOP leader panned the idea of the House sending back an amended version, which would require another potential all-night voting session like the one senators endured last weekend. “We can’t do that — another vote-a-rama, that drags it on indefinitely,” Thune said.
The House and Senate are still at the beginning phase of a process that will take weeks, if not months, as they turn their budget resolutions into legislative text — a final product with more votes ahead later this spring or summer.
Democrats, in the minority, do not have enough votes to stop the package, but have warned against it.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the Republicans’ budget plan is reckless and callous as it proposes slashing budgets to give tax breaks to the wealthy.
“We’re here to make it clear,” Jeffries said. “Hands off everyday Americans struggling to make ends meet.”
Central to the budget framework is the Republican effort to preserve the tax breaks approved in 2017, during Trump’s first term, while potentially adding the new ones he promised on the campaign trail. That includes no taxes on tipped wages, Social Security income and others, ballooning the price tag to some $7 trillion over the decade.
The package also allows for budget increases with some $175 billion to pay for Trump’s mass deportation operation and as much for the Defense Department to bolster military spending.
It all would be partly paid for with steep cuts to domestic programs, including health care, as part of the $2 trillion in reductions outlined in the House GOP version of the package, though several GOP senators have signaled they are not willing to go that far.
To clip costs, the Senate is using an unusual accounting method that does not count the costs of preserving the 2017 tax cuts, some $4.5 trillion, as new spending, another factor that is enraging the House conservatives.
Two Republican senators voted against their package during an overnight weekend session — Maine Sen. Susan Collins objected to steep cuts to Medicaid in the House’s framework, while Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul argued the whole package relied on “fishy” math that would add to the debt.
The package would also boost the nation’s debt limit to allow more borrowing to pay the bills. Trump had wanted lawmakers to take the politically difficult issue off the table. With debt now at $36 trillion, the Treasury Department has said it will run out of funds by August.
But the House and Senate need to resolve their differences on the debt limit, as well. The House GOP raises the debt limit by $4 trillion, but the Senate GOP boosted it to $5 trillion so Congress would not have to revisit the issue again until after the fall 2026 midterm election.
With Trump’s trade wars hovering over the debate, House Republicans tucked a provision into a procedural vote that would prevent House action — as the Senate has taken — to disapprove of Trump’s tariffs.
Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Stephen Groves, Leah Askarinam and Matt Brown contributed to this report.