Tag Archives: Mike Johnson

Trump Admin Sends $9.4 Billion Rescissions Package to the House

The Trump administration sent a $9.4 billion rescissions package to the House of Representatives that would eliminate “wasteful foreign aid spending” at the Department of State and USAID, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) revealed.

In a joint statement, Johnson, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer R-MN), and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI), highlighted how Republicans could now “fulfill” their “mandate and continue codifying into law a more efficient federal government.”

“Today, the House has officially received the rescissions request from the White House to eliminate $9.4 billion in wasteful foreign aid spending at the State Department and USAID and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS,” Johnson said in a post on X. “Now that this wasteful spending by the federal government has been identified by DOGE, quantified by the Administration, and sent to Congress, House Republicans will fulfill our mandate and continue codifying into law a more efficient federal government.”

“This is exactly what the American people deserve,” the statement continued. “Next week, we will put the rescissions bill on the floor of the House and encourage all our Members to support this commonsense measure.”

The House Oversight Committee also confirmed in a post on X that the White House had sent Congress a $9.4 billion rescissions package, which included $1.1 billion in cuts “to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS.”

“These outlets ATTACK the America First agenda on the taxpayers’ dime,” the House Oversight Committee wrote. “We’re ready to STOP this propaganda machine.”

The reports that a rescissions package had been sent to Congress comes after Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Russell Vought revealed during an interview with Fox News host Larry Kudlow that a rescission package with DOGE cuts would be sent to Congress.

“So, rumor has it that we’ve got a big rescission package, an Elon Musk DOGE rescission package coming up, can you confirm it?” Kudlow asked.

“I can,” Vought answered. “We’ll be spending that up on Monday or Tuesday, whenever the Houe is back in session, they will get our first rescissions bill. And, again, this has been proposed and we’ve talked about it, we want to make sure that Congress passes its first rescissions bill, including the DOGE, and we will send more it they pass it.”

Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) issued a statement describing the White House sending the $9.4 billion rescissions package to Congress as being “another promise made, promise kept” by President Donald Trump and his administration.

“With our national debt soaring at an alarming $36 trillion, this rescissions package takes serious steps to ensure hard-earned dollars of American citizens are not funding woke and weaponized programs around the world in the cloak of ‘foreign aid’ or public broadcasting that can only be described as politically biased,” Marshall said.

In a press release, Marshall noted that “under the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), the Trump Administration may transmit a request to Congress to rescind previously appropriated funds through a rescissions package.”



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5/25: Face the Nation



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This week on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” as Americans prepare for Memorial Day, Margaret Brennan speaks to some veterans serving in Congress about the value of public service and honoring those who’ve protected us. Plus, House Speaker Mike Johnson talks about the House’s passage of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

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What’s in Trump’s House-passed “one big, beautiful bill”

Washington — House Republicans made a number of last-minute changes to the legislation containing President Trump’s second-term agenda in order to win over opposing factions in the GOP. And, after an all-night session, the measure, entitled the “one big, beautiful bill,” squeaked through by a single vote.  

It’ll now go to the Senate, which will leave its own mark on the bill. But here’s what’s in the legislation that was passed by the House Thursday. 

Tax cuts and extensions

At the center of the legislation — and accounting for its biggest expense — are the provisions extending Mr. Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. With the cuts slated to sunset at year’s end, the extension and new tax cuts have been a key priority for congressional Republicans and the White House.

Beyond the 2017 tax cuts, the legislation includes a number of tax cuts that the president touted on the campaign trail. It includes no taxes on tips for workers in the service industry, like those who work at restaurants and bars, as well as people who work in the beauty industry. But it’s a temporary exemption that expires at the end of 2028. The package also includes no taxes on overtime through 2028. And the new legislation would allow tax deductions on up to $10,000 in interest on auto loans for cars assembled in the U.S. This provision would be in place until 2029.

The bill would also eliminate a longstanding $200 tax on gun silencers, which has been on the books since Congress passed the National Firearms Act in 1934. 

And among the bill’s provisions is a temporary $500 increase in the child tax credit, bringing it to $2,500 through 2028.  

The package also includes a tax on remittances, imposing a tax on cash payments sent by non-U.S. citizens to family members in their home countries. Though the bill initially would have subjected individuals to a 5% excise tax, the managers amendment, which contained the updates to the bill, lowered the tax to 3.5%.

Medicaid restrictions

The legislation includes changes to Medicaid, a popular entitlement program that provides government-sponsored health care for low-income Americans — imposing work requirements for able-bodied adults without children, more frequent eligibility checks, cutting federal funds to states that use Medicaid infrastructure to provide health care coverage to undocumented immigrants and banning Medicaid from covering gender transition services for children and adults.

The amendment speeds up the implementation of the work requirements from Jan. 1, 2029, to no later than Dec. 31, 2026, a change sought by hardliners. The work requirements would apply to Medicaid recipients without disabilities between the ages of 18 and 65, and those who do not have a child under the age of 7.  

Increasing the State and Local Tax Deduction, or SALT

Also included in the package is an increase to the cap on the State and Local Tax Deduction, which was imposed by the 2017 Trump tax law and currently stands at $10,000. 

Before the rule, taxpayers could deduct all their state and local taxes from their federal taxes, which some policymakers have said mainly benefits wealthy homeowners in states with high taxes, such as New York and California. But advocates for increasing the caps argue that the $10,000 cap is increasingly impacting middle-class homeowners who live in regions where property taxes are rising.

The package initially included a $30,000 cap, but blue-state Republicans threatened to withhold their support, and they ultimately reached an agreement with leadership to increase the deduction to $40,000 per household for incomes up to $500,000.

Border security funding

Though the bulk of the funding allocated in the legislation goes toward tax cuts, it also includes resources for border security and defense. Among the bill’s provisions is $46.5 billion for the border wall, $4.1 billion to hire Border Patrol agents and other personnel and more than $2 billion for signing and retention bonuses for Border Patrol agents. It also includes an additional $1,000 fee for people who are filing for asylum in the U.S. 

The amendment to the legislation added an additional $12 billion for expenses related to border security.

$1,000 “Trump accounts” for child savings 

The legislation also creates $1,000 savings accounts for children, which were originally titled “MAGA accounts” — Money Accounts for Growth and Advancement. The name has been updated to “Trump accounts.” Under the plan, the federal government will contribute $1,000 to the accounts of children born between 2024 and 2028. Parents can contribute up to $5,000 a year. The funds, which can begin to be distributed once the child turns 18, can be used for higher education, job training and the purchase of their first home. 

While income on the accounts can grow on a tax-deferred basis, distributions for qualified expenses, like those mentioned above, would be taxed at a long-term capital gains rate. Another type of education savings vehicle, 529 accounts, enables parents to save and grow the accounts on a tax-deferred basis, too, but the money can be withdrawn for specific education-related expenses tax-free.

Restrictions on food stamps

The package also raises the upper age requirement for able-bodied adults without children to qualify for benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, or food stamps. Currently, in order to qualify, able-bodied adults between 18-54 must meet work requirements. The House bill would update the age requirement to 18-64 and would also shift more of the costs to states. 

Rolling back clean energy programs

The bill would also roll back some of the clean energy tax credits under the Biden-era climate and health care law, like an earlier phasing out of a tax break for clean energy vehicles. A late addition to the bill would move up the timeline to end tax credits for new renewable energy power plants as well, requiring them to begin construction within 60 days of the enactment of the legislation and be in service by the end of 2028. The measure makes an exception for nuclear plants, which must be under construction by the end of 2028.

Addressing the debt limit

With a major deadline to address the debt limit on the horizon, the legislation would raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has urged Congress to address the debt limit by mid July, warning that the U.S. could be unable to pay its bills as soon as August without action. Congressional Republicans added the debt ceiling to the larger budget package to bypass negotiating with Democrats on the issue, since the budget legislation can move forward in the Senate without support from across the aisle.  

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What’s next for House budget battle as Speaker Johnson calls latest move a “big win”



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House Republicans’ massive budget plan barely made it out of committee for a second straight vote. Nikole Killion lays out the sticking points.

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House GOP eyes tax bill vote this week as disagreements persist

Washington — House Republicans plan to move ahead with a vote this week on the legislation containing President Trump’s second term agenda. But fractures in the GOP conference appeared to persist over the weekend, despite the legislation’s movement out of committee, throwing its passage into question.

“There’s a lot more work to do,” House Speaker Mike Johson told reporters late Sunday. “But I’m looking forward to very thoughtful discussions, very productive discussions, over the next few days — and I’m absolutely convinced we’re going to get this in final form and pass it.”

After the final three committees advanced their portions of the massive legislative package last week, a handful of conservative hardliners on the House Budget Committee blocked the package from moving forward Friday. The setback prompted work through the weekend to negotiate with the holdouts, who ultimately allowed the legislation to advance late Sunday.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington called it a “critical step,” while acknowledging that deliberations are continuing, with disagreements remaining on a cap on the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, and on when Medicaid work requirements would take effect. But Arrington said the vote to advance the legislation Sunday “is a sign that people are confident that these things will be resolved.”

Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina, two of the conservative holdouts, celebrated a change made Sunday that would remove delays from the Medicaid work requirements, since conservatives opposed the original plan, which would have delayed until 2029 work requirements for childless Medicaid recipients without disabilities. But Roy noted in a post on social media that “the bill does not yet meet the moment,” pointing to remaining sticking points on cutting clean energy subsidies implemented under the Biden administration and cuts to the federal share of payments for Medicaid.  

Johnson suggested that he and the conservatives had agreed to “minor modifications” over the weekend. The speaker is walking a tightrope between the hardliners demanding more cuts and moderates who are reluctant to slash Medicaid, while a number of Republicans who represent blue states have also threatened to withhold their votes unless their demands are met on SALT, among other divisions.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, at the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, May 15, 2025. 

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images


The legislation is set to go before the House Rules Committee on Wednesday at 1 a.m., where any changes to the legislation would be made. But Roy and Norman also sit on the Rules Committee and could raise a final hurdle there ahead of the full House vote. Should the package advance out of the Rules Committee, it would tee up a vote on the package on Thursday, before lawmakers are set to leave town for the Memorial Day recess. 

As Republican leadership irons out the remaining issues, President Trump is expected to continue to pressure Republicans to get the bill passed this week, as he did on Friday on social media. But whether the White House intervenes more forcefully by meeting with key holdouts or making calls to individual members remains to be seen. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing Monday morning that it’s “absolutely essential that Republicans unite behind the one big, beautiful bill, and deliver on President Trump’s agenda,” adding, “there is no time to waste.”

Meanwhile, the legislation is expected to face some resistance in the Senate, where a number of Republicans have warned that should the House pass the bill, the upper chamber will try to make changes.

Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, told reporters late last week that the House bill “would not pass in the Senate, and I think there’s plenty of us that would vote against it.” And Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, told reporters that “we’ve assumed all along that the Senate would have its input on this.”

Johnson said on Fox News Sunday that “the package that we send over there will be one that was very carefully negotiated and delicately balanced, and we hope that they don’t make many modifications to it because that will ensure its passage quickly.”

Beyond the self-imposed deadlines, the inclusion of a debt limit increase in the package has added urgency to getting the legislation to the president’s desk. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged Congress earlier this month to address the debt limit by mid July, warning that the U.S. could be unable to pay its bills as soon as August without action. And top administration and congressional leaders have circled July 4 as the deadline to get the package to the president desk. 

“We’ve got to get this done and get it to the president’s desk by that big celebration on Independence Day,” Johnson said. “I’m convinced that we can.”

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Trump budget package in danger as it hits GOP opposition

Washington — House Republicans have yet to resolve several major disputes that threaten to derail President Trump’s domestic policy bill as more conservative members and blue-state Republicans dig in on their demands. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson remains committed to putting the legislation, which would extend tax cuts from Mr. Trump’s first term while temporarily enacting new ones, on the floor before Memorial Day. The tax measures, as well as increased spending on the military and border security, would be offset partly by cuts to Medicaid, food stamps and clean energy subsidies. 

But first, it will have to get through the House Budget Committee starting Friday, where a handful of conservatives have said the legislation does not go far enough to slash federal spending. Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina said Thursday that he and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas would vote against advancing the bill. 

“We’ve got a spending problem. We’ve got a deficit problem, and it doesn’t address that,” Norman said. 

Rep. Jodey Arrington of Texas, the Republican chairman of the Budget Committee, said he was confident there are enough votes to advance it when the committee meets Friday to merge the various parts of the reconciliation package that have been produced by other committees into a single bill. If it can get out of the Budget Committee, the plan is for the Rules Committee to meet Monday to tee it up for a floor vote later in the week. 

Meanwhile, a group of Republicans from blue states have threatened to withhold their support in a floor vote if the bill does not raise a cap on state and local taxes that can be written off on federal tax returns. The bill increases the cap on the deduction from $10,000 to $30,000, but several New York Republicans have insisted on raising it even further. 

Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican, on Thursday called the cap “unacceptable” and said the group has made clear to leadership that “none of us are going to support that as it currently stands.” 

Among the demands conservative members have made are moving up the work requirements for Medicaid recipients without disabilities and children. The requirements would not set in until 2029 under the current bill and conservatives want them to kick in as soon as the legislation becomes law. 

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, said Thursday that they are considering moving up the effective date for the work requirements to get more members on board with the final product, but added that the final details have not been worked out. 

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, spent Thursday meeting with the opposing factions and said they would continue to negotiate through the weekend to resolve the remaining differences. He can afford just three defections, if all members are voting, in a floor vote. 

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