Senate moves closer to "acceptance" on big red line for House GOP
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This is Markwayne Mullin. Photo: Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said Monday that negotiators are nearing a deal that would keep the House-passed $40,000 SALT deduction cap in the Senate's version.
Why it matters: The SALT cap is one of several major differences between the House and Senate that need to be resolved if congressional GOP leaders want to meet their July 4 deadline for President Trump's "big, beautiful bill."
- "I wouldn't say an agreement, just an acceptance," Mullin told reporters. "It does it with the income threshold, but not the cap."
- The House version phased out the deduction for income above $500,000. The Senate's compromise version will likely lower that threshold.
- "No side is going to be happy, but it's something that we've got to put a number in. We want to get it where it's palatable for both sides, but neither side is going to love it," Mullin said.
Driving the news: Republican senators met Monday night to once again hash out priorities for their major piece of legislation — after the Senate parliamentarian took a hatchet to it over the weekend.
- The chamber rule keeper knocked out roughly $300 billion in revenue sources, Mullin estimated, ruling them ineligible under budget reconciliation rules.
- "So we're grabbing everything we can to make sure we have the deficit cuts," Mullin said.
Zoom in: Agriculture Chair John Bozeman (R-Ark.) explained to senators in the meeting how he thinks they can work back in some SNAP savings cut by the parliamentarian.
- "John pretty much outlined how he thinks he's going to be able to work that," Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told Axios, saying there could be potentially a longer glide path for the states.
- "That was the big one," Capito said of the SNAP ruling.
- Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) got into a heated debate over the AI moratorium provision, with Blackburn arguing to protect songwriters, according to two attendees.
Between the lines: Senators also discussed their differences on Medicaid proposals, with Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) indicating that changes to the federal matching share (FMAP) for new Medicaid enrollees is unlikely to be included in the final bill.
- Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who met with Trump this evening, told reporters that eventually changes needed to be made be made to the program, or else taxes would likely increase for Americans.
- "There's no way the federal government can pay for this," he said.
- "My proposal is real simple. No one gets kicked off."
- He wants to grandfather existing enrollees under the current 90% match, but over time, steadily reduce the FMAP for more people.
What they're saying: "Right now, the bill is held together with happy thoughts and spit," said John Kennedy (R-La.). "I think we'll eventually pass something I just can't tell you when we've got a lot of stuff to work out and the bill will be changed on the floor."
- "There were also some ideas and questions that we're gonna follow up on tomorrow at lunch," Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) told Axios.
- "I would expect us to kind of pick up right where we left off, and keep working through the issues that people do have."
