House GOP fiscal hawks demand big changes to megabill
As we’ve reported, members of the House Freedom Caucus were expected to meet with the president this morning. Earlier, caucus chairman Andy Harris earlier told CNN:
I’m still voting no on the rule. We have to get this thing right.
And Texas representative Chip Roy, among the most vocal critics of the Senate’s version of the bill, said that he and many other conservatives remain opposed to the bill and still want major changes. He told CNN:
It’s not ‘take it or leave it.’ I don’t need take-it-or-leave-it legislating. How about we send it back to him? We say, ‘Take it or leave it,’ all right? So the Senate doesn’t get to be the final say on everything.
He said he and other hardliners were in ongoing discussions with the White House about the changes they want, adding:
I think we need more spending restraint, and I think we need to fix what they did in the Senate.
Meanwhile, Kentucky representative Thomas Massie, who is not a member of the caucus but has consistently voted against the bill over his deficit concerns, said he intends to stand firm in that position. Asked by CNN if there was anything at all leadership could do to win his vote, he said:
We could go back to drawing board to a skinny bill.
He called the 4 July deadline “arbitrary”, adding:
There’s no reason to bankrupt the country because you want to go shoot off some fireworks.
Key events
US judge blocks Trump asylum ban at US-Mexico border, saying he exceeded his authority
A federal judge has blocked Donald Trump’s asylum ban at the US-Mexico border, saying the president exceeded his authority when he issued a proclamation declaring illegal immigration an emergency and setting aside existing legal processes.
US district judge Randolph Moss said in a 128-page opinion that Trump’s 20 January proclamation blocking all migrants “engaged in the invasion across the southern border” from claiming asylum or other humanitarian protections went beyond his executive power.
The ruling is a setback for Trump, whose aggressive immigration crackdown has seen the number of people caught crossing illegally plummet to record low levels.
The American Civil Liberties Union brought the challenge to Trump’s asylum ban in February, arguing it violated US laws and international treaties.
Moss said he would stay the effective date of his order for 14 days to allow the Trump administration to appeal.
Key GOP holdout says he’s ‘a little closer’ to voting yes after Trump-Vance meeting
Tim Burchett, of Tennessee, struck a positive note after a two-hour meeting he and other conservatives had with Donald Trump at the White House this afternoon, saying it was “very productive” and put him “a little closer” to voting yes on the president’s megabill.
He told CNN:
It puts me a little closer. We’re going to meet a little bit here and go over everything and make sure we got all our facts straight.
In a post on X, Burchett said vice-president JD Vance was also present at the “very informative” meeting with the president and declared it was “a very good day”. He said:
The president was wonderful as always, informative, funny, told me he likes seeing me on TV, which is kind of cool.
Big day today, folks. Hopefully we get this thing worked out. The president answered all of our questions, was very informative. JD Vance was there. This was a very good day.
‘We can’t make everyone 100% happy,’ says Johnson as it remains unclear if he has the numbers to pass bill
Speaker Mike Johnson has said “very positive” progress has been made toward passing Donald Trump’s megabill, but acknowledged that “we can’t make everyone 100% happy” with the final package, CNN reports.
CNN quotes Johnson as telling reporters:
When you have a piece of legislation that is this comprehensive and with so many agenda items involved, you’re going to have lots of different priorities and preferences among people because they represent different districts and they have different interests.
But we can’t make everyone 100% happy. It’s impossible. This is a deliberative body. It’s a legislative process. By definition, all of us have to give up on our personal preferences. [I’m] never going to ask anybody to compromise core principles, but preferences must be yielded for the greater good, and that’s what I think people are recognizing and come to grips with.
It remains unclear if he has the numbers needed to pass the bill as the House prepares to take a key procedural vote to get the bill closer to final passage.
Johnson said he – and Trump – have been speaking to conservative hardliners and swing-district Republicans all day about their concerns, adding that “there’s more conversations to be held”.
We’ve had lots of great conversations. I’ve met with individuals and groups all day long, as has the president – who’s fully engaged as well – trying to convince everybody this is the very best product that we can produce. There’s more conversations to be held.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus and others are meeting in a ceremonial office off the House floor, and walking back-and-forth between there and the House floor, The Hill is reporting, moments before the chamber is set to vote on advancing the bill.
The Hill has this observation: “Ralph Norman, of South Carolina, and caucus chair Andy Harris, of Maryland, who had pledged to vote against the rule earlier today, are notably not answering now when asked if they’re still going to vote no.”
Preliminary motion on bill passes through House on party lines, but unclear if GOP has numbers for later vote
Chris Stein
Back on the House floor, Republicans have just managed to get through the chamber a preliminary motion on the bill.
The motion, which was approved on party lines with 214 in favor and 212 against, sets the stage for another vote later in the afternoon to adopt the rule. If that is successful, the chamber will debate the bill, then vote on its final passage.
However, it remains unclear if the GOP has the votes it needs to pass the rule.
Chris Stein
On their way into the Capitol, two conservative Republican lawmakers signaled optimism that the bill would get through the House.
“I think these votes will take a little, a little bit or a lot longer than usual. But that’s Washington. You guys are watching how the sausage is made, and that’s how business is run,” Nancy Mace told reporters.
Like several other lawmakers, she wound up driving from her South Carolina district to Washington DC after a flurry of thunderstorms yesterday prompted major flight delays and cancellation around the capital.
“There’s things in the bill I don’t like, but would I change the bill because I didn’t get what I wanted? I don’t think that would be good for America,” said Troy Nehls of Texas, as he smoked a cigar.
Here are some pics from the Capitol on this dramatic day.
House of Representatives in midst of one of the preliminary votes
Chris Stein
The House of Representatives is in the midst of one of the preliminary votes it must take before they can vote on passing the wide-ranging tax and spending bill that is Donald Trump’s top legislative priority.
Republicans have a small majority and will need all their members present to get the bill through, particularly if they want to make Trump’s self-imposed deadline of Friday, the Independence Day holiday.
Republican lawmakers who had not arrived earlier trickled into the Capitol Wednesday afternoon, and sounded positive about their chances of getting the bill passed — though perhaps not in the next two days.
“We’re going to get it done,” said South Dakota congressman Dusty Johnson, who went on to acknowledge that “people are still getting to yes”.
Earlier in the day, he had participated in meetings with Trump and holdout Republicans, which he described as successful. “The meetings that I was in, the president, I think, closed out just about everybody,” Johnson said.
The first African leaders’ summit of Trump’s second term will be held next week in Washington, with heads of state from Guinea-Bissau, Gabon, Mauritania, Senegal and Liberia, according to reporting from Semafor. The meeting will take place from July 9-11.
Democratic representative Josh Riley of New York accused Republicans of not caring about middle class Americans during a lengthy debate on the House floor about Trump’s controversial bill.
Riley said: “Don’t tell me you give a shit about the middle class, when all you’re doing is shitting on the middle class.”
Steve Womack then reprimanded Riley, telling him to avoid vulgar language, saying “we do have families in the…” before moving on to address someone else.
The US and Vietnam struck a trade agreement that sets 20% tariffs on many of the Southeast Asian country’s exports following last-minute negotiations, Trump and Vietnamese state media said on Wednesday.
The rate is lower than an initial 46% levy Trump announced in April on goods from Vietnam which was due to take effect next week.
Trump said that goods from Vietnam would face a 20% tariff and that any trans-shipments from third countries would face a 40% levy. Details were scarce and it was not immediately clear how the trans-shipment provision would be implemented.
Vietnam would also provide the US with more market access, with US exports to the country facing no tariffs, Trump said. That agreement appears to include US exporters of large-engine cars, according to Trump and Vietnamese state media.
The Trump administration has asked the Supreme Court to remove three Democratic members of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, who were fired by Trump and then reinstated by a federal judge.
Trump has the power to fire independent agency board members, the Justice Department argued in its filing to the high court, pointing to a May ruling by the Supreme Court that endorsed a robust view of presidential power.
The administration asked the court for an immediate order to allow the firings to go forward, over the objections of lawyers for the commissioners.
The commission helps protect consumers from dangerous products by issuing recalls, suing errant companies and more. Trump fired the three Democrats on the five-member commission in May. They were serving seven-year terms after being nominated by former president Joe Biden.
House GOP fiscal hawks demand big changes to megabill
As we’ve reported, members of the House Freedom Caucus were expected to meet with the president this morning. Earlier, caucus chairman Andy Harris earlier told CNN:
I’m still voting no on the rule. We have to get this thing right.
And Texas representative Chip Roy, among the most vocal critics of the Senate’s version of the bill, said that he and many other conservatives remain opposed to the bill and still want major changes. He told CNN:
It’s not ‘take it or leave it.’ I don’t need take-it-or-leave-it legislating. How about we send it back to him? We say, ‘Take it or leave it,’ all right? So the Senate doesn’t get to be the final say on everything.
He said he and other hardliners were in ongoing discussions with the White House about the changes they want, adding:
I think we need more spending restraint, and I think we need to fix what they did in the Senate.
Meanwhile, Kentucky representative Thomas Massie, who is not a member of the caucus but has consistently voted against the bill over his deficit concerns, said he intends to stand firm in that position. Asked by CNN if there was anything at all leadership could do to win his vote, he said:
We could go back to drawing board to a skinny bill.
He called the 4 July deadline “arbitrary”, adding:
There’s no reason to bankrupt the country because you want to go shoot off some fireworks.
‘All we need are four Republicans’: Jeffries urges GOP to show ‘John McCain-level courage’ and reject megabill
Earlier, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries called on four House Republicans to vote “hell no” on Trump’s signature tax and spending megabill (the GOP’s majority is so slim, they can only afford three no votes if the bill is to pass).
Invoking the late Republican senator John McCain’s decisive vote to sink the GOP’s 2017 effort to repeal Obamacare during Donald Trump’s first term, Jeffries said from the steps of the Capitol:
What type of party would bring a bill to the House floor that rips away Medicaid from those in need? What kind of party would bring a bill to the House floor that literally robs food from the mouths of children, veterans and seniors? And all of this is being done to provide massive tax breaks to their billionaire donors. It’s unconscionable; it’s unacceptable; it’s un-American.
All we need are four Republicans – just four – to show John-McCain-level courage.
He and other Democrats also called out several Republicans facing tough re-election contests in battleground districts next year – Scott Perry and Rob Bresnahan, both of Pennsylvania, and David Valadao and Young Kim, both of California.
Judge blocks Kristi Noem from ending temporary protected status for Haitians
A federal judge last night blocked the Trump administration’s bid to end temporary deportation protections and work permits for approximately 521,000 Haitian immigrants before the program’s scheduled expiration date.
Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded Joe Biden’s extension of temporary protected status (TPS) for Haitians through 3 February. It called for the program to end on 3 August, and last week pushed back that date to 2 September.
The US district judge Brian Cogan in Brooklyn, however, said the homeland security secretary Kristi Noem did not follow instructions and a timeline mandated by Congress to reconsider the TPS designation for Haitians.
“Secretary Noem does not have statutory or inherent authority to partially vacate a country’s TPS designation”, making her actions “unlawful”, Cogan wrote. “Plaintiffs are likely to (and, indeed, do) succeed on the merits.”
Cogan also said Haitians’ interests in being able to live and work in the United States “far outweigh” potential harm to the US government, which remains free to enforce immigration laws and terminate TPS status as prescribed by Congress.
In a statement, Tricia McLaughlin, homeland security spokesperson, said Haiti’s TPS designation had been granted following the 2010 earthquake in that country, and was never intended as a “de facto” asylum program.
“This ruling delays justice and seeks to kneecap the President’s constitutionally vested powers,” she said. “We expect a higher court to vindicate us.”
More than 1 million people, more than half of them children, are displaced within Haiti, where gang violence is prevalent despite a UN-backed security mission that began last year.
Trump administration sued for giving Medicaid data to deportation officials
David Smith
The Trump administration violated federal privacy laws when it turned over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to deportation officials, a group of 20 states allege in a lawsuit.
Last month health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr’s advisers ordered the release of a dataset that includes the private health information of people living in California, Illinois, Washington state and Washington DC to the Department of Homeland Security.
All allow non-US citizens to enroll in Medicaid – a jointly funded federal and state health insurance programme for lower-income individuals and underserved groups – that pay for their expenses using only state taxpayer dollars.
On Tuesday, California attorney general Rob Bonta and 19 other states’ attorneys general sued over the move. They alleged that the Trump administration’s data release infringes on federal health privacy protection laws, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
“This is about flouting seven decades of federal law policy and practice that have made it clear that personal healthcare data is confidential and can only be shared in certain narrow circumstances that benefit the public’s health or the Medicaid programme,” Bonta said during a press conference.
The complaint argues that if “members of our community cannot trust that the government will keep their medical history and other personal data safe, they will think twice about going to the doctor when needed”. This loss of trust will lead to “irreparable damage due to increased morbidity and mortality”.