President Donald Trump is ratcheting up pressure on Republican holdouts on his multi-trillion dollar tax bill while he’s participating in the annual NATO Summit in the Netherlands this week amid entrenched GOP divisions that put a self-imposed July 4 deadline at risk.
Among the remaining areas of contention is increasing the state and local tax deduction, a critical issue for House lawmakers from New York, New Jersey and California. Other unresolved issues include fights over Medicaid and the size of spending cuts.
Deputy Treasury Secretary Michael Faulkender said Tuesday on CNBC that he’s confident “the president will continue to chime in as his guidance and encouragement is needed.”
Faulkender said the administration expects Senate leaders to bring the massive legislation to the floor on Thursday. Trump took to Truth Social on Tuesday morning to continue his push.
“To my friends in the Senate, lock yourself in a room if you must, don’t go home, and GET THE DEAL DONE THIS WEEK,” he posted. “Work with the House so they can pick it up, and pass it, IMMEDIATELY. NO ONE GOES ON VACATION UNTIL IT’S DONE.”
The Senate is revising the House’s version of the bill, which passed that chamber by a single vote last month. The Senate can only afford to lose three Republican votes, and several more GOP senators have publicly said they have problems with the bill.
The president held meetings with key holdouts Senators Rick Scott and Mike Lee at the White House yesterday.
That bloc of Republicans has criticized the deficit impact of the bill. Others, such as Senators Susan Collins and Josh Hawley, say that the Medicaid changes in the bill could harm rural hospitals.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with Senator Susan Collins to discuss the bill, Faulkender said. A spokesperson for Collins did not respond to a request for comment confirming the meeting took place.
But any changes to the Senate bill risks upending the fragile coalition in the House. The House version of the bill expanded the so-called SALT cap to $40,000. Senators have criticized the increase, adding a $10,000 placeholder in a draft of the bill while negotiations take place.
Senate Republicans are coming around to the $40,000 cap on state and local tax deduction but they want to lower the income threshold.
“I think 40 is the number we are going to land on,” Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma said Tuesday, saying the negotiation will focus on the income threshold.
The House bill, which passed the chamber on a single vote last month, would phase down the break for those with incomes of more than $500,000 in 2025, with the income limit increasing by 1% per year as well.
But New York Republican Nick LaLota signaled lowering the threshold isn’t an option unless he receives other concessions in return.
A salary of “$500,000 is not rich on Long Island,” he said. “Maybe it is in Oklahoma.”
One concession could be allowing that income threshold to rise more than 1% per year.
“I’ve been very clear about where my red line is,” Representative Mike Lawler of New York said on Tuesday, in response to a question about any changes to the House SALT deal.
Lawler has said he is unwilling to make any changes to the plan House members negotiated with Speaker Mike Johnson and the White House.
Still, Faulkender said that SALT negotiations are ongoing and the administration is optimistic that a deal will be reached.
“We are confident that we will get a compromise and the SALT cap issue will not hold up this bill,” Faulkender said.
Credit: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons
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