As Republican congressional leadership prepares to pass its One Big Beautiful Bill Act—the main legislative vehicle for President Donald Trump’s campaign promises—a number of fiscal hawks in the House Freedom Caucus are indicating they will vote it down if the Senate’s rumored changes are included.
Specifically, caucus members say the Senate’s work on the bill weakens the rollback of former President Joe Biden’s environmental policies, makes more tax cuts permanent without offsetting spending cuts, and does not pursue more of the restructuring of Medicaid they desire.
Leadership in both chambers hope to send the bill to the president’s desk by Independence Day, July 4, and have indicated they will work through a planned recess if necessary to get it passed.
“The currently proposed Senate version of the One Big, Beautiful Bill weakens key House priorities,” wrote Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., on the social platform X.
Harris voted “present” on the bill when it passed through the House.
“It doesn’t do enough to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid, it backtracks on Green New Scam elimination included in the House bill, and it greatly increases the deficit—taking us even further from a balanced budget,” he added.
“If the Senate tries to jam the House with this version, I won’t vote ‘present.’ I’ll vote NO.”
Harris was joined in his criticisms by a number of other Freedom Caucus members, including Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, who has harshly criticized how the Senate’s framework currently pushes the expiration for Biden-era green energy tax incentives further into the future.
“The bill in its current Senate form would increase deficits, continue most Green New Scam subsidies, & otherwise fail even a basic smell test … I would not vote for it as it is,” he wrote.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., also said on X that “if leadership tries to jam it through, I will vote NO.”
These three members—who are far from alone in their concerns—hold the power to decide whether or not the bill can pass, as it squeaked through the House by a one-vote margin in May.
Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., a freshman member of the Freedom Caucus, shared his concerns at the moment.
While he has not explicitly threatened to vote against it, he said on X on Tuesday that he gets “more concerned each day” about the bill’s direction.
“I think there’s some concerns about pushing back some of the dates and some of the things that were very important,” he told The Daily Signal. “Again, I’m making it very clear when I’m not drawing any red lines at this particular point.”
Harris also voiced his displeasure with how the Senate parliamentarian (essentially the chamber’s rule keeper) has tossed a number of provisions under the Senate’s “Byrd Rule”—which determines whether or not a policy belongs in a 10-year budget framework like the One Big Beautiful Act.
The parliamentarian gutted the House Agriculture Committee’s bid to require states to share the cost of food stamp programs if they have a high payment-error rate. Harris is a member of that committee.
“I think we need to look at where the savings are going to come from,” said Harris. “We’re seeing things dropping like flies.”
One way to address a Byrd Rule decision from the parliamentarian is to amend a provision and resubmit it.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told The Daily Signal on Tuesday that it remains to be seen whether Byrd Rule casualties could make the bill’s passage more difficult.
“We knew that process would eventually happen, and they’re in the middle of that process, and it could go on for a few more days, and then we’ve got to evaluate it. It’s too early to evaluate. Right now, I want to see a final product from the Senate,” he said.
However the disagreements and difficulties are resolved, Harris says that he’s willing to stay in Washington until Republicans can pass the bill.
“If we have to stay here through the recess, it’s not anything anybody covets, because we’ve all got things to do back in the district. We’ve all got parades, and we’ve got July Fourth activities that are going to be coming up, but we’ve got to stay here and get this finished.”
