It’s crunch time in the House, where the next 48 hours will test Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership like never before as he scrambles to secure the needed votes to pass a megabill aimed at advancing President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.
After Sunday night’s successful vote to send the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” to the House Rules Committee, there are now two full intervening days for Johnson to put the final touches on the reconciliation bill and rally Republican support. And the pressure is on.
Johnson doesn’t have the votes at this time, given public concerns from conservatives and moderates alike. He can only lose three Republican members, so changes to the bill text are a certainty.
The speaker on Monday expressed confidence in the House’s consensus-building operation as lawmakers make modifications to the bill.
“It’s been a bottom-up process — that was what everybody wanted so we have delivered — and we’re almost there,” he said. “I’m very optimistic that we will find the right equilibrium point to get this bill delivered.”
Johnson’s effort to unify the conference behind the bill is a major test of his speakership, and his ability to deliver for Trump, who is also encouraging Republicans to support it.
Johnson worked over the weekend to sway Republican holdouts on the House Rules Committee to prevent blocking the legislation from moving out of the committee as they had on Friday. The hard-liners voted present on Sunday night to allow the bill to advance, but still haven’t offered full-throated support for the bill.
Speaker Mike Johnson speaks to reporters as he leaves the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol, May 15, 2025 in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Trump is willing to get involved to help the effort, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday morning. She said the president was in contact with Johnson over the weekend and that Trump is “willing to pick up the phone” to encourage Republicans to fall in line on the bill.
Now, the Rules Committee is preparing for its hearing at 1 a.m. Wednesday morning — and that meeting will set the parameters for floor debate. Meanwhile, negotiations inside the speaker’s office will reach a fever pitch Monday and Tuesday as Republicans grapple over the sticking points — primarily regarding Medicaid work requirements and a cap on state and local tax deductions.
“Nothing is final until it’s final,” a senior House Republican leadership aide told reporters at a briefing Monday morning. “It’s a fragile process.”
Johnson on Monday downplayed perceived concerns that the GOP was dropping in last-minute changes to the legislation at this late stage in the process.
“We have a few issues to resolve — and we are working with all parties to do that — and I’m confident that we will,” Johnson explained.
Why meet at 1 a.m. on Wednesday? House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx let out a gentle laugh as she walked through the Capitol early Monday morning — telling ABC News the timing must adhere to the House rules after the House Budget Committee voted late Sunday night to advance the bill.
So what is the rule?
“Under the rules, Budget Dems get two calendar days to file minority views after [Sunday] night’s markup,” a Democratic aide explained. “Rules then has a one-hour notice requirement, hence [the hearing] starting at 1 a.m.”
Clouds roll over the U.S. Capitol in Washington, May 18, 2025.
Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
If the Rules Committee reports the reconciliation package favorably to the floor, that would keep Johnson’s plans on schedule to hold a vote on passage on Thursday — though he has threatened to hold the House in session this weekend if there are any hiccups along the way.
Johnson is setting his sights on sending the package to Trump for his signature by the Fourth of July given a mid-July “deadline” to address the debt limit to avoid a default.
As negotiations continue behind closed doors, Republican aides stress that “95% of the bill is done” while they scramble to lock down support. A round of changes are anticipated to address technical modifications at the urging of the Senate parliamentarian, who is scrubbing the bill text and signaled some legislative language may be fatal to reconciliation privileges in the Senate.
“Everything is on the table,” a senior GOP aide said, stressing the fluidity of the overall discussions.
House Republicans are still weighing potential changes to implementation dates for Medicaid work requirements, balancing what is “feasible” for states to implement against the angst of Republicans whose patience does not extend to 2029, beyond the Trump presidency, as it’s currently written in the bill.
“We want to make sure that what we’re intending to do is actually matching an ability to implement,” a senior Republican aide said. “And so an exact date is hard to say at this stage because I think we’re still working through that.”
On SALT, aides said a resolution is “not decided yet” — explaining that members are just returning to town after a three-day weekend and the speaker continues to work through it.
Leavitt on Monday addressed a concern some of Republican holdouts expressed about the bill adding to the bloated national deficit, saying flatly that “this bill does not add to the deficit.”
Republicans insist they’re going to hit at least $1.5 trillion of savings with the bill while also reflecting Trump’s agenda — pointing at Congressional Budget Office’s letter confirming that all 11 committees met their reconciliation instruction targets.
“This has been a year’s worth of work to kind of figure out what are the priorities you want to instill. We started this a long time ago and worked towards it,” an aide emphasized. “We’ll work through all the changes that we need to make here, and then we’ll see where the final exact numbers shake out. But the bottom line is we had a framework set in the budget and we’re going to get that.”
And as the clock ticks down, Johnson rejected questions about the crunch time giving him “heartburn.”
“No, I don’t have heartburn, because I know we are going to get this job done,” Johnson said.
ABC News’ Arthur Jones II contributed to this report.
