Senate Republicans are meeting Wednesday to begin discussions on President Donald Trump's "one big, beautiful" funding bill that is instrumental to his domestic policy agenda, Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., told reporters Tuesday.
The closed-door meetings will kick off what Republicans hope to be a four-week sprint to pass the budget bill for Trump's signature by July 4.
"We're going to have a conference tomorrow of all the senators here and outlining from some of the various committees with their jurisdiction what they're doing," Barrasso said.
Committees are expected to begin rolling out pieces of their legislative changes this week, Politico reported Monday, with committees making the least controversial changes going first. The Senate Finance Committee, which has purview over Medicaid and tax cuts, would be one of the last to go, according to the report.
Trump on Monday called on congressional Republicans to move up passage of the bill to before July 4; the previous goal had been by July 4.
Trump hosted Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., at the White House on Monday, as they plot a course to pass the sprawling tax and policy measure, according to Punchbowl News, which also reported that Trump took calls with a handful of Senate Republicans who oppose the bill that passed the House by one vote.
"It'll have to track very closely to the House bill because they've got a fragile majority and struck a very delicate balance," Thune said Monday. "But there are some things that senators want to add to the bill or things we'd do slightly differently."
Trump spoke with GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., by phone and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., in person, according to Punchbowl. Hawley boasted about his call with Trump regarding Medicaid concerns.
Trump hit Paul with two social media posts on Tuesday after doing "most of the talking" in their phone call, Paul told CNN. Paul calls the move to raise the debt limit a "nonstarter" for him.
Johnson has been attacking the bill's lack of spending cuts for weeks. Scott is also calling for "fiscal sanity" in the bill.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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