House Delays Key Vote on Megabill Over GOP Resistance

House Republicans have delayed a key vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as leadership works to gain enough support to clear a procedural hurdle among GOP opposition and absences.

The penultimate vote in a series of procedural votes Wednesday afternoon, needed to pass before the House can open debate, remained open for more than an hour while GOP leadership worked behind the scenes to flip holdouts, The Hill reported.

House leadership then told lawmakers to return to their offices while more meetings occurred, a source familiar with the matter told Axios. Lawmakers in both parties were told they would have at least an hour before they were needed back on the floor, aides and members told Axios.

"Look, we worked on this a long time," Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters, including Newsmax congressional correspondent Kilmeny Duchardt, upon his return to the Capitol Building. "A lot of thoughtful work went into this and even though the Senate modified some of our product, the extraordinary things in this bill are so important for the American people. And most of our agenda is wrapped up into this legislation.

"So, it must pass. We have to deliver for the people. [The] president wants to do it. As he said very well, this is no longer the House's bill or the Senate's bill. It's the people's bill. And it's our agenda, and so we've got to do good on it. So, I think everybody understands that. I think everybody's trying to get to yes, and I believe we will."

There has been significant pushback to the Senate’s amended version of the bill, which needed a tiebreaking vote from Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday to keep it afloat. President Donald Trump has said he wants the bill, the signature piece of legislation in his second term, on his desk by the Fourth of July.

Johnson can afford to lose only three votes, provided all members are in attendance and Democrats maintain across-the-board opposition. Any changes to the Senate version must go back to the upper chamber for another vote, putting further pressure on Johnson to deliver the bill to Trump to meet the deadline.

Republicans, including many members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, were seen shuffling in-and-out of a room off the House floor during the series of procedural votes, The Hill reported. Many had vowed to vote against the rule, which sets the parameters for debate.

Republican Reps. Andy Harris of Maryland, chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Eli Crane of Arizona, Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and others were seen entering the room at various points.

Although some changes to the Senate version resulted from the parliamentarian ruling they didn't meet budget requirements to escape a potential Democrat filibuster, Freedom Caucus members reportedly 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 [than] $1.3 trillion with interest after changes were made in base text and a wrap-around amendment was adopted," the caucus said in a memo that sharply criticized the Senate version.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., however, told reporters that leadership is waiting on some Republicans to arrive at the Capitol after facing travel issues with weather delaying flights across the country, The Hill reported. He said once the absent members arrive, they will resume the vote.