{"id":21400,"date":"2026-07-29T22:53:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21400"},"modified":"2026-07-29T22:53:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T17:53:32","slug":"scoop-inside-the-white-house-pitch-for-pre-election-maga-megabill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=21400","title":{"rendered":"Scoop: Inside the White House pitch for pre-election MAGA megabill"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/-8IwVCnv0SkRZvsFUx3XQWC836s=\/0x0:4000x2250\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/29\/1785343141372.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>White House officials will press Senate Republicans behind closed doors Wednesday to pass a blueprint for another<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/23\/house-senate-republicans-reconciliation-save-act\" target=\"_blank\"> GOP-only megabill<\/a> before they leave for the August recess, but save any possible debt ceiling increase for later, Axios has learned.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:  <\/strong>Senate Republican leaders have been skeptical that there is the time \u2014 or the votes \u2014 to get it done. President Trump and his team disagree.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<ul>\n<li>White House officials want the Senate to build in flexibility to jam through as much of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/03\/29\/save-act-voter-registration-distance-travel\" target=\"_blank\">SAVE America Act<\/a> as possible, and they are insisting it can be crafted to avoid tough amendment votes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom in:<\/strong> Office of Management and Budget director Russell Vought, legislative affairs director James Braid and former House Speaker New Gingrich will speak at Senate Republicans&#8217; weekly lunch on Wednesday, multiple sources familiar with the matter tell Axios.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Vought and Braid will make a three-point pitch for passing a budget resolution to kick off reconciliation 3.0.<\/li>\n<li>They&#8217;ll argue it should be the GOP&#8217;s priority to &#8220;pay our troops, help our farms and secure our elections,&#8221; a senior White House official told Axios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom in: <\/strong>The White House wants the Senate by the end of next week to pass a similar resolution to the one that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/07\/22\/house-republicans-reconciliation-iran-funding-save-act\" target=\"_blank\">House passed<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The resolution outlines $73 billion in funding for defense, $12 billion in farm aid and a $10 billion fund aimed at incentivizing states to adopt elements of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/25\/mike-johnson-trump-save-america-act\" target=\"_self\">SAVE America Act<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>The resolution addresses the two most popular parts of SAVE for Republicans: requiring photo ID to vote and proof of citizenship to register.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines: <\/strong>The White House officials plan to make the argument to Republicans that the reconciliation blueprint should include instructions for a large number of committees\u2014 whether that&#8217;s 8 or 10 or more.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The idea is to provide flexibility to pass as much of the SAVE Act as possible if the parliamentarian raises concerns about jurisdiction: For example, if a provision dealing with driver&#8217;s licenses ends up falling under the Commerce committee&#8217;s jurisdiction.<\/li>\n<li>Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters Tuesday evening that reconciliation 3.0 is going to &#8220;become a much more comprehensive process that could create instructions to up to a dozen committees.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The goal is for the budget to have maximum flexibility to get as much through Byrd as possible, that is protectable on the floor in a vote-a-rama context, and that can be passed before the Senate goes on August recess,&#8221; the White House official told Axios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The intrigue: <\/strong>The White House is not planning to ask the Senate to raise the debt limit in this package, the official told Axios. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>That could be part of the discussion for a potential fourth, lame duck package.<\/li>\n<li>The debt limit would fall under Finance Committee jurisdiction, opening up the possibility for Democrats to force Medicaid amendment votes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The bottom line: &#8220;<\/strong>We hope that the Senate can walk with us in this process,&#8221; the official said, &#8220;so that we can unify traditional Republican constituencies of farmers, of our troops and, obviously, the MAGA base.&#8221;<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>White House officials will press Senate Republicans behind closed doors Wednesday to pass a blueprint for another GOP-only megabill before they leave for the August recess, but save any possible debt ceiling increase for later, Axios has learned. Why it matters: Senate Republican leaders have been skeptical that there is the time \u2014 or the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/-8IwVCnv0SkRZvsFUx3XQWC836s=\/0x0:4000x2250\/1366x768\/2026\/07\/29\/1785343141372.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}