House Republicans are growing increasingly wary of the self-imposed July 4 deadline to get President Donald Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ to the White House, as the president warns that the bill ‘must’ be ready for his signature by then.
‘I think it’s more important to get the bill correct than it is to get it fast,’ Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a former House Freedom Caucus chairman, told Fox News Digital. ‘I’m interested in a great deliverable product, and spending the time and the resources necessary to get that, whatever they may be.’
It’s a thought shared by members outside of the conservative rebel group as well – Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., who represents part of New York City, said Fourth of July is a ‘realistic’ goal, but not one she was married to.
‘I’m not set on getting this done by July 4th. I know that’s a goal, it’s a nice soundbite, doing this on Independence Day and celebrating America,’ Malliotakis said. ‘But at the end of the day, we’ve got to do it right. And I’d rather take a few more days, a few more weeks, to make sure we can deliver a good product for the American people.’
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters on Friday that it was ‘possible’ the deadline could slip, ‘but I don’t want to even accept that as an option right now. We want to try to push this.’
The vast tax and immigration bill is currently in the Senate, where lawmakers are still working through several key issues on Medicaid and state and local tax (SALT) deductions among other details.
An earlier version passed the House by just one vote in late May.
Now, several House Republicans are balking at proposed changes in the Senate – though there’s still no final product – and warning that the bill could lose their support when it returns to the House.
Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., who leads the Doctors Caucus, told Fox News Digital he had issues with the Senate version’s comparably harsher cuts to federal Medicaid funding.
‘There is uniform agreement amongst many, many members in the House – if there’s a change in the [federal Medicaid assistance percentage], we’re not voting for it. It would remove the Medicaid expansion of North Carolina. I won’t stand for that,’ he said.
Asked about the feasibility of a July 4 deadline, Murphy said, ‘I’ve been a surgeon all my life … if I plan things, I’m used to having them given up in case a patient needs me for emergencies and things like that.’
Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., a moderate, said ‘there might be some prudence’ in letting go of the July 4 deadline.
Conservative Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, was more optimistic. ‘I think it’s more worth it to get the bill right, but that’s not to say we won’t get it done by then,’ he said.
Rep. Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., suggested the timeline will rely heavily on Trump.
The Senate is expected to work through the weekend to pass the bill.
Johnson told House Republicans, meanwhile, to be flexible next week when they’re expected to be home in their districts. Sources have told Fox News Digital that House GOP leaders have offered varying estimations of when lawmakers will have to be back in Washington, from Tuesday through Thursday.
And the House is up against at least one real-world deadline: The U.S. is expected to run out of cash to pay its debts by the summer, according to multiple projections. Republicans have made raising the debt limit a priority in the bill.
Trump, for his part, wrote on Truth Social Friday, ‘The House of Representatives must be ready to send it to my desk before July 4th – We can get it done.’
He said during a press conference earlier in the day, ‘We can go longer, but we’d like to get it done by that time, if possible.’