Hardline House conservatives swing for fences in asks to Senate GOP on megabill
Hardline conservatives in the House are making a broad swath of recommendations to make the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' of President Trump's tax cut and spending priorities even more conservative.
A 10-page memo labeled to Senate Republicans from 'House Conservatives' — with input from members of the House Freedom Caucus while not being officially from the group — and shared with The Hill shows the hardliners swinging for the fences with numerous suggestions to change the megabill.
Those include some controversial suggestions that were previously rejected by the House, like putting restrictions on the Medicaid Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) that was expanded under ObamaCare; and further reigning in the ability of states to extract more federal Medicaid matching dollars through provider taxes imposed on health care providers.
They call for ramping up the repeal of green energy incentives — a position opposed by just over a dozen House GOP moderates, who wrote to the Senate last week to request that leaders 'improve' the green energy tax credits rather than eliminate them
The memo calls to scale back the increase to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, which the bill increases from $10,000 to $40,000 with a phase-out for income above $500,000 — a compromise reached after intense and testy negotiations with blue-state republicans, and a measure considered critical to ensuring the bill makes it to the president's desk.
And it pitches increasing a new 3.5 percent tax on remittances that migrants send to their home countries, among other measures — some of which were not fully explained.
'While the House OBBB limits certain benefits for illegal aliens, it does not fully end all taxpayer-funded benefits they receive, and it should,' the memo says.
It closes: 'Other Matters Deserving of Consideration That We Are Not (Sufficiently): a) Fed pays interest to banks (Trillions), b) Higher remittance fees (up to point, Billions), c) Prohibition on foreign / China land ownership not restricted enough, d) Other.'
The House cleared the 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' last month, moving it through a special budget reconciliation process that bypasses the need to get Democratic support in the Senate. Senate Republicans are expected to make changes to the bill, which the House will have to vote again to approve before it heads to Trump's desk.
Leaders have set a goal of rubber-stamping the bill by July 4 — a timeline seen as ambitious by many in the GOP and their allies outside Congress as different factions in the party jockey over its provisions.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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