Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2025
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by Alan Jamison
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The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is moving forward on President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda. But major hurdles remain.
After months of tense negotiations, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Ways and Means Committee, and Agriculture Committee all released draft versions of their budget reconciliation bills on Monday. The bills are slated for a markup process on Tuesday, where committee members have an opportunity to review, amend, and rewrite the legislation before deciding whether to advance it to the full House for a vote.
Despite the progress, Speaker Mike Johnson still has a tall task ahead of him to pass a final package through the chamber. House Republicans have a historically slim 220-213 majority – meaning they can only afford to lose two votes and still pass the bill.
The ongoing negotiations over the legislation have put hardline fiscal conservatives (who want steeper spending reductions) at odds with GOP moderates who are concerned about some proposed cuts to government programs. Any group of three or more House Republicans has the power to derail the entire legislation.
Nonetheless, the package will likely be congressional Republicans’ best opportunity to pass a large portion of Trump’s agenda into law.
Because of the Senate’s filibuster rule, virtually all legislation needs 60 votes in the upper chamber to pass – meaning that most bills are dead on arrival. One major exception is budget bills, which require only a simple majority to pass. During the Biden administration, Democrats used this special carve-out to pass the gargantuan “Build Back Better Act,” which enacted large portions of Democrats’ “Green New Deal” and poured money into left-wing priorities.
Now, Trump is taking a similar approach, calling for a “Big, Beautiful Bill” that contains his top domestic priorities. Congress will need to pass it to ensure that a future Democrat president cannot quickly undo all the changes Trump has made via executive action thus far.
The draft bill released on Monday is 389 pages and would make the tax reductions from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, as well as increase the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap to $30,000 from the previous $10,000. The bill also would include Trump’s promise of eliminating taxes on tips and overtime, increasing the debt ceiling by $4 trillion, and temporarily increasing the child tax credit to $2,500 through 2028.
The White House posted on X that the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” would save 6 million jobs, including 1.1 million jobs in manufacturing and 719,000 jobs in retail trade. Speaker Johnson praised the bill in an interview with Lara Trump on Fox News.
“We have been working hard trying to keep up with the president. The reconciliation package, of course, is a big part of that,” Johnson said. “And that will be the vehicle where we deliver most of the America First agenda. A lot of work has gone into this. We’ve been working on that package for over a year in anticipation of this moment because we knew he was going to win another term.”
The bill would also tax money that foreign workers send back to their home countries at a five percent rate to make up some revenue for the cuts, along with instituting steeper taxes on university endowments. Universities that have endowments over $2 million per student would pay a tax of 21 percent on annual endowment profits.
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) originally introduced a bill in January that would raise the taxes on university endowment profits to 21 percent. He explained to the Daily Caller that he was satisfied with the language in the bill.
“I’m pleased the primary provisions of my bill, the Endowment Tax Fairness Act, are included in the House Ways and Means reconciliation proposal,” he said. “I am proud to have led this effort and applaud Chairman Smith’s hard work and leadership. Every day, we are one step closer to delivering President Trump’s one big, beautiful bill. Let’s get it done and do some good for the American people.”
The bill does not include every idea that has been discussed leading up to Monday’s release. Republicans did not include a tax increase for the wealthy. There is also no tax exemption for Social Security income, but Americans 65 and older who do not itemize their deductions will be able to receive an additional $4,000 on their standard deduction.
The House has just seven legislative days left before the Memorial Day Recess, when Johnson has stated he wants to push the reconciliation package through the House. That would put Congress on track to deliver the final bill to President Trump’s desk by July 4.
Alan Jamison is the pen name of a political writer with extensive experience writing for several notable politicians and news outlets.
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