Members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus claimed Monday they would not back the Senate’s version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act because it doesn’t include enough spending cuts.
As the Senate proceeded with a series of votes on amendments to the megabill, the 32-member Freedom Caucus said their GOP colleagues needed to make “major changes” if they expected the measure to pass the House and get to President Trump’s desk.
“The Senate’s version adds $651 billion to the deficit — and that’s before interest costs, which nearly double the total,” the group claimed on X.
“That’s not fiscal responsibility. It’s not what we agreed to,” the caucus added. “The Senate must make major changes and should at least be in the ballpark of compliance with the agreed upon House budget framework. Republicans must do better.”
The current version of the spending bill would add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, about $1 trillion more than projections from the House version, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
That figure also doesn’t account for interest on the debt, which would likely push the bill’s addition to the deficit closer to $3.9 trillion, the CBO added.
The increase to the national debt left members of the ultraconservative caucus fuming over the weekend, with its members warning that the bill would be dead on arrival in the House if it doesn’t meet the group’s demands.
“I don’t think it survives on the floor in the current form it’s in,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told Fox News Digital on Sunday. “We told the senators that.”
Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO), added that not even additional cuts to Medicaid spending in the Senate will be enough to entice the caucus into supporting the bill.
The Freedom Caucus made similar criticisms about the first version of the bill that House lawmakers voted on last month, only to rally and help the legislation pass by a single vote.
President Trump and GOP leaders have imposed a deadline of July 4 for the bill to become law, with Republicans leveraging the reconciliation process to bypass the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a Democratic filibuster.
Republicans currently hold a 53-47 advantage in the Senate and a 220-212 edge in the House.
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