Vice President JD Vance walked away from The Hill empty-handed on Wednesday after he tried to win over Republicans who are wary of the $95 billion reconciliation package that President Donald Trump is trying to push through Congress before the midterms, according to a new report.
The reconciliation package includes roughly $67 billion for defense, $20 billion to support America’s agriculture industry, and some elements of Trump’s SAVE Act, which would reshape how U.S. elections are conducted, Axios reported. During a pitch meeting on Wednesday afternoon, Vance “did little to ease concerns” shared by House Republicans about how the bill will play with their base as the midterms approach, the outlet reported.
“It’s DOA,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) told Axios about the bill. “Five-dollar footlongs are $12. People know that a lot of this is the debt. The deficits cause big debt, and overall, this debases the money. This is part of what’s driving the affordability crisis.”
Other Republicans expressed misgivings about the bill not having enough offsets to justify the spending included in it. Vance told reporters after the meeting that the administration had other goals in mind when crafting the bill.
“We decided this legislation, for a whole host of procedural reasons, was not the place in order to codify some of the things that we’re doing in the anti-fraud task force.”
But the process that Vance is referring to also appears to be irking the same Republicans the vice president is trying to convince to support the bill.
“I think the stupidest thing to do would be to try to jam it through committee when we’ve got bigger problems on the House floor,” Roy told the outlet. “And I think that might be the current state of affairs.”
Senate Republicans, who would be expected to pass the bill next, have said including provisions of the SAVE Act may violate Senate rules, thereby further delaying the bill’s passage.
“We’re going to try and get her done,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) told Axios. “We thought they would have offsets in there. We’re a little surprised they weren’t.”