President Donald Trump signaled Sunday evening that he would welcome significant alterations by Senate Republicans to the House-passed “one big, beautiful bill,” a move that directly challenges Speaker Mike Johnson’s efforts to maintain the legislation’s current form. The President’s openness to changes could significantly reshape the sweeping tax and spending package as it navigates the upper chamber.
“I want the Senate and the senators to make the changes they want,” President Trump told reporters Sunday evening. “It will go back to the House and we’ll see if we can get them. In some cases, the changes may be something I’d agree with, to be honest.” Trump further anticipated, “I think they [Senate Republicans] are going to have changes. Some will be minor, some will be fairly significant.”
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This development comes as several GOP senators have already warned that the House version of the bill is essentially dead on arrival in the Senate without major revisions. Speaker Johnson, who oversaw the bill’s narrow one-vote passage in the House on Thursday, has been actively urging his Senate counterparts to limit amendments, emphasizing the “delicate” consensus achieved among House Republicans.
“I think we reached a good equilibrium point over more than a year of discussion and negotiation and planning for our big reconciliation bill,” Johnson stated on Fox News Sunday morning. “We balanced the interest of a very diverse Republican caucus… I encourage them to modify the package that we’re sending over there as little as possible, because we have to maintain that balance, and it’s a very delicate thing.”
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Congressional Republicans are under pressure to meet a July 4th deadline set by the White House to pass Trump’s domestic policy agenda, which is embedded in the budget reconciliation bill. The legislation also incorporates a necessary increase to the statutory debt limit. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, in a May 9 letter to Speaker Johnson, underscored the urgency, warning that Congress must act by mid-July to prevent a government default on its $37 trillion debt. However, House and Senate Republicans remain at odds over the extent of the debt ceiling hike.
Senate Republicans have indicated a desire to target several key areas of the House bill. These include provisions that substantially increase the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, the aggressive phasing out of tax breaks for green energy projects, and the failure to make certain tax cuts permanent. Furthermore, influential fiscal conservatives like Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson are threatening to stall the bill if it doesn’t incorporate deeper spending cuts.
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The potential for significant Senate modifications sets up a challenging scenario for House leadership. Conservative groups within the House Republican conference, such as the House Freedom Caucus, reportedly agreed to support the initial bill only after securing last-minute conservative policy additions. These factions have signaled they “will not look kindly” on the Senate stripping those provisions.
Despite the intra-party friction, President Trump expressed confidence in the bill’s ultimate success. “I think it’s going to get there,” he remarked Sunday, praising the efforts of Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson.
Should the Senate amend the legislation, it will necessitate a second vote in the House before the package can be sent to the President for his signature.
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