Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said there could be as many as three reconciliation bills this Congress in recognition that not everything can make it into the current reconciliation bill. Graham highlighted the challenge that the Senate GOP will have in getting everything in the reconciliation bill, saying “there’s some things that the President wants, like no take on tips and overtime. All this may be hard to fit in completely. So let’s have as big a bill as the market will bear, but realize that more is coming.” Graham’s remarks come as Senate Republicans remain divided over how to cut the cost of the reconciliation bill to appease a jittery bond market and fiscal hawks in the Republican caucus.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the House Freedom Caucus released a memo urging Senate Republicans to cut the reconciliation bill by enacting deeper cuts to Medicaid, repealing clean energy tax credits earlier, raising taxes on remittances, eliminating the ban on states regulating artificial intelligence, and reducing the $40,000 cap on the state and local tax deduction. Separately, 38 House Republicans led by House Budget Vice Chair Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Thune (R-SD), saying that “any additional tax cuts” in the reconciliation bill “must be matched dollar-for-dollar by real, enforceable spending reductions.”