Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have circulated a memo sharply criticizing the Senate-passed megabill, Politico reported Wednesday.
GOP debate concerning President Donald Trump's tax-cut and spending bill returned to the House after the Senate passed its version on Tuesday.
Leadership in both chambers of Congress are trying to get the bill to Trump's desk by the president's self-imposed July 4 deadline.
Wednesday began with House leaders saying they were depending on Trump and the White House to help sway opponents to the bill.
However, Politico reported the Freedom Caucus was circulating a three-page document that mentions more than a dozen changes made in the Senate after the bill passed the House in May.
Although some changes were due to the Senate parliamentarian ruling they didn't meet budget requirements to escape a potential Democrat filibuster, caucus members said revisions to the bill's deficit impact cannot be blamed on the parliamentarian.
"The bill violates the House framework of $1 of tax cuts for $1 of spending cuts (with 2.6% economic growth), increases the deficit by $761 billion without interest and more $1.3 trillion with interest after changes were made in base text and a wrap-around amendment was adopted," the memo says, Politico reported.
"This was not what [Senate Majority] Leader [John] Thune and Speaker [Mike] Johnson promised."
The House Freedom Caucus took to X to say the Senate version "continues taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for adults and minors, doesn't fully get illegal aliens off Medicaid and allows illegal alien parents to open the new Trump Accounts, guts the repeal of the Green New Scam, and adds hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit."
Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., called on Trump to order senators, many of whom left Washington following Tuesday's vote, back to town for further negotiations.
"There's a little work left to be done, but if the president calls the Senate back in town, we should be able to do it," he said, adding, "I haven't spoken to the president about it."
Trump was scheduled to meet with Freedom Caucus members and other GOP lawmakers on Wednesday.
"He's been working the phones pretty consistently over the last several days, and members have been calling him as well," a White House official told Politico. "He's going to get it over the finish line."
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.