The House Freedom Caucus is displeased with Senate Republicans‘ modifications to the “one big, beautiful bill,” demanding the upper chamber make “major changes” to the reconciliation legislation before it heads to the House for a vote.
“The House budget framework was clear: no new deficit spending in the One Big Beautiful Bill,” the caucus said in a post to X Monday. “The Senate’s version adds $651 billion to the deficit — and that’s before interest costs, which nearly double the total.”
“That’s not fiscal responsibility. It’s not what we agreed to,” the caucus added.
The fiscal hawks have been vocally opposed to the Senate’s version of the legislation, arguing that the upper chamber needs to adhere to the framework that passed out of the House, which calls for over $1.5 trillion in spending cuts.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) gave a commitment just hours before the House voted on the budget resolution, after the Freedom Caucus demanded a concrete agreement that he’d adhere to the spending cuts as a floor and not a ceiling.
But the parliamentarian’s ruling against provisions in the Senate Finance Committee’s portion of the bill, including cuts to healthcare provider taxes, federal Medicaid reimbursements, and immigrant eligibility for Medicaid, has complicated the path forward.
The Congressional Budget Office also noted over the weekend that the Senate’s version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would add around $3.3 trillion to deficits over the next decade.
“The Senate must make major changes and should at least be in the ballpark of compliance with the agreed upon House budget framework,” the Freedom Caucus wrote. “Republicans must do better.”
The House leans more conservative than the Senate, so changes to the legislation were expected. But the lower chamber’s razor-thin margins mean Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) can only afford to lose three votes and still pass the bill along party lines.
Over 20 lawmakers from the Freedom Caucus, SALT Caucus, and swing districts have come out with red lines on the reconciliation bill. Some centrists have said that if the cuts go too far, they will vote no. If the cuts don’t go far enough, it risks losing fiscal hawks and other right-wing conservatives.
The House is expected to hold a Rules Committee hearing Tuesday at noon to discuss the bill, if the Senate can pass the legislation Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Full-chamber votes are expected as early as Wednesday morning, as Republicans rush to meet their self-imposed July 4 deadline to get the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk.
The ambitious timeline has irritated fiscal hawks such as Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX). Roy said in an appearance on “The Dana Show” that he wants to “accelerate” Trump’s agenda.
“I want to vote yes, but I can’t vote yes just because they say I have to,” Roy said. “I can’t vote yes just because everybody says we got to get it done by July 4.”
He said he doesn’t think the Senate is “doing that right math.”
“So rather than forcing it through this week, we should have the conversations we need to with the Senate, see what we do, review the bill, find where we can find savings, find where we can adjust what we’re doing on tax policy, and make the math actually add up,” Roy said.
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While Trump has been vocal in urging the GOP to pass the legislation as soon as possible, he has not gotten physically involved in whipping votes as of now, as he did in the past for the budget resolution and spending deals.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thune and Johnson would meet with the president on Monday. But Thune’s spokesperson told the Associated Press he did not go to the White House Monday morning and has no plans to go on Monday. Punchbowl News reported that Johnson did not go to the White House, either.
