Senate Republicans will huddle on Wednesday as they try to iron out some of the trickiest parts of their “big, beautiful bill.”
GOP senators are expected to be briefed by committee chairs who have yet to release their pieces of their party-line pack of tax cuts and extensions, border security investments, energy policy and more. Republicans held a similar meeting last week with panel leaders to discuss the less contentious parts of the bill.
Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo is tentatively scheduled to be among the Republicans to update colleagues at Wednesday’s confab, according to five Republican senators and staff granted anonymity to share details of private deliberations. Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman is also likely to brief the conference.
The two Republican lawmakers are tasked with crafting some of the trickiest parts of the package.
Crapo has the drafting pen both on his party’s tax priorities, as well as changes to Medicaid and potentially Medicare. Senate Finance had been expected to release text this Friday, but Republicans are preparing for that to slip until early next week as they navigate the state-and-local-tax deduction cap and other sticking points.
Boozman, meanwhile, is facing pushback to a House proposal that would require states to cover part of the cost of federal food assistance benefits known as SNAP. At the same time the panel is struggling to hit the $150 billion in net savings Senate Republican leaders are pushing for the agriculture portion of the megabill.
Senate Republican leaders had been the Agriculture Committee to expected to release text Wednesday, but that timeline is also looking tenuous as more governors over this past weekend raised private issues with the cost-share plans.
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