Holdouts say Trump promised he'd 'make the bill better' in the future
While there were no changes made to the legislative text of President Donald Trump’s megabill after it came back from the Senate, some House Republican holdouts said the president made promises to get their votes.
After meeting with House Republicans at the White House on Wednesday and working the phones through the night and into the early morning Thursday, the president addressed members’ unease in real-time, Speaker Mike Johnson observed, “making sure that everyone's concerns are addressed and their questions are answered.”
South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman said Trump provided holdouts “assurances” that changes would be made to “getting permits” related to wind and solar tax credits.
“Wind and solar needs to be -- we would have cut those out Day 1. We couldn’t do that,” Norman said on CNBC Thursday.
“And, you know, up until late in the night, we were negotiating, you know, things that could change with, you know, the tax credits, which all were put in by Joe Biden, which needed to be extinguished,” Norman said.
Norman also signaled that Trump could use executive power to “make the bill better.”
But during negotiations this week, the lawmakers were unable to extract any changes to the bill.
Nevertheless, Texas Rep. Chip Roy, an outspoken conservative firebrand who led the public pushback against the bill, argued that the Freedom Caucus “has successfully delivered substantive wins” -- before adding, “There may be a few more yet.”
“The real story of the OBBB is reforming Medicaid to require work & to return spending to pre-COVID levels, saving over $1 Trillion,” Roy posted on X. “A modest but important reform that would not have happened if the @freedomcaucus had not fought for it.”
Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde said he “fought” to improve the megabill -- hoping to include an amendment to remove taxes on firearms -- that the Senate ultimately stripped out.
“I also had the opportunity to discuss this critical matter directly with President Trump at the White House. I look forward to working with him and his Administration to further restore our 2A rights. Stay tuned,” Clyde said.
While the firearms tax remains in the bill, Clyde said he ultimately planned to vote in favor of the package “because I support fulfilling President Trump’s America First agenda and the promises we made to the country.”
