Speaker Mike Johnson predicted Thursday morning he had the votes to pass Republicans’ domestic policy megabill and would only lose “one or two” GOP lawmakers ahead of a self-imposed July 4 deadline.
“We’ll get this. We’ll land this plane before July 4,” he told reporters.
GOP leaders are barreling towards a final passage vote on the megabill as soon as this afternoon after pulling an all-nighter to advance the bill over the initial opposition of conservative holdouts upset at changes the Senate made to the package. Still, Johnson told reporters that while GOP lawmakers needed “time to digest” the Senate’s changes, many of their concerns were allayed with the help of President Donald Trump and his administration.
“The president helped answer questions. We had Cabinet secretaries involved, and experts in all the fields, and I think they got there,” he said.
He brushed aside concerns about Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a purple-district lawmaker who was the sole lawmaker to oppose the procedural vote, saying he “tried to encourage him to get to a yes” though Johnson acknowledged Fitzpatrick has “got a number of things he’s just concerned about.”
The final vote has been delayed by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ so-called “magic minute,” or the unlimited speaking time granted to party leaders that’s been stretched into its sixth hour. Jeffries could break the all-time record set by then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who spoke for about eight and a half hours in 2021 to delay passage of Democrats’ domestic policy package.
