Even before the Senate started flailing over the reconciliation endgame, hardline House Republicans were warning their leaders, the Senate and the White House that they were prepared to take down President Donald Trump’s domestic legislative agenda because of what they considered inadequate spending cuts.
After backing down under pressure from Trump several times already this year — the floor fight for speaker, government funding and the first reconciliation vote — the House Freedom Caucus seems more dug in than ever.
The HFC, which has been a thorn in Trump’s side at times, put out a statement on Monday arguing that the Senate’s bill will add $651 billion to the deficit, far more than what the House initially passed.
In a post on X, HFC members said the Senate “should at least be in the ballpark of compliance” with the budget framework for them to consider voting for the reconciliation package.
“The House budget framework was clear: no new deficit spending in the One Big Beautiful Bill. The Senate’s version adds $651 billion to the deficit — and that’s before interest costs, which nearly double the total,” the group said. “That’s not fiscal responsibility. It’s not what we agreed to.”
Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) and HFC Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) have publicly said they’re a “no” on the bill.
Roy released a lengthy statement over the weekend complaining that the Senate will not only increase the deficit, but will lift the debt limit by an additional $1 trillion and leave almost 50% of the Inflation Reduction Act subsidies in place. Roy has been calling for a complete removal of all IRA subsidies.
Roy, the HFC’s policy chair, wants the House to have more time to talk to their Senate GOP counterparts, saying he “can’t vote yes” just because of the GOP’s self-imposed July 4 deadline.
But beyond the members that have publicly come out as no, there are several other HFC members who have expressed major frustration with the Senate too. We’ve been tracking this in our Big Mad Index, in case you missed it.
Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who has been heavily involved with talks between House and Senate conservatives, posted on Monday that every member of Congress is “duty bound” to get the country out of $37 trillion of debt.
White House dialogue. White House officials are working hard to persuade HFC members to support the package, arguing that it includes the bulk of Trump’s legislative agenda, including extending the 2017 tax cuts.
While Trump has been vocal about wanting to meet his July 4 deadline, he’s softened his comments in recent days.
White House liaison James Braid and Deputy Chief of Staff for Legislative, Political and Public Affairs James Blair have been the most directly involved with HFC talks. Braid, once a top HFC staffer himself, has appeared at several of the group’s weekly meetings.
Blair also disclosed he met with Harris last week when he attended the Republican Study Committee’s lunch with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
The group also had a collective call with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller last week.
The HFC hasn’t put out an official statement as a group, aside from a breakdown of how the Senate bill breaks the House budget agreement.
And we’ll remind you that every single HFC member, with the exception of Harris, voted to pass the House bill after initially threatening against doing so. Harris voted present, but has been signaling that he’ll be a “no” this time.
One thing we can say for sure is that any member that does dare to vote to further stall Trump’s agenda is likely to get an angry message from the president. And perhaps a primary challenger in 2026.
