House Republicans are steamrolling toward Friday morning’s scheduled Budget Committee markup even as a growing number of issues threaten to block progress on their “big, beautiful bill.”

GOP leaders went back and forth overnight with conservatives after they threatened to tank the bill over key disagreements around Medicaid work requirements and IRA tax credits. Other holdouts are pushing to postpone the markup until all the Congressional Budget Office scores are released, which could take days.

And even if they do strike an agreement in time for the 9 a.m. markup, it could be more or less a handshake. Republicans won’t be able to tweak actual language in the bill Friday — they’ll have to wait for the Rules markup on Monday. And with a list of outstanding issues from different factions in the conference, any addition to smooth tensions could cause a chain reaction of other defections.

Here are the latest sticking points to watch:

MEDICAID — Hard-liners appear to have gotten a bone here, with GOP leadership signaling they are seriously considering moving up the implementation of new work requirements in the program from 2029 to 2027. That could lead to tens of billions of dollars in savings but would also lead to more coverage losses ahead of the 2028 election.

Most moderates appear on board, but it’s unclear if the changes will be enough to placate hard-liners, who feel the current proposed cuts are woefully insufficient. Conservatives are also pushing for immigrants in the country illegally to be immediately removed from Medicaid access. But additional changes like that could reignite moderates’ wariness.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kat Cammack and other GOP Floridians have concerns about provisions freezing taxes that states levy on providers to finance their Medicaid programs, saying they would hurt Florida more than other states. Still, Cammack voted Energy and Commerce’s portion with those policies out of committee.

IRA CLIMATE TAX CREDITS — Hard-liners are also demanding a faster phase-out of clean energy tax credits enacted under former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. But Hill GOP defenders of the clean energy incentives now have to decide how far to push their demands to spare at least some of the credits.

“We have alternative language, and it’s something we’re going to work with leadership to try to get them to implement,” said Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), co-chair of the House Bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus.

Speaker Mike Johnson promised to use a “scalpel” and not a “sledgehammer” in any tax credit changes.

FEDERAL EMPLOYEE PENSIONS — Some Republicans are also concerned about a proposal to spur federal employees to contribute more money to their retirement savings. Several moderate Republicans met with Johnson throughout Thursday on the issue.

“You can change people’s pensions that are coming into the workforce,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told POLITICO. “Don’t change them when they’ve been working. You don’t change the rules on people.”

The plan would hit lawmakers and congressional staffers’ own wallets.

STATE-AND-LOCAL-TAX DEDUCTIONS — The latest proposed number from a key group of blue-state Republicans is $62,000, said Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.). That’s more than double the current offer in the bill, prolonging the impasse between SALT Republicans and GOP leadership.

“A lot of work to do if we’re going to get this one big, beautiful bill over the finish line, especially by Memorial Day,” LaLota said on Thursday. “Still a lot of variables.”

What else we’re watching:

— Crypto vote incoming: Majority Leader John Thune moved Thursday to tee up landmark cryptocurrency legislation for a procedural vote on the Senate floor early next week. The move comes as negotiators circulate an updated draft of the crypto bill that includes new concessions to Democrats.

— Tucked into the tax bill: The sprawling tax package before the House is pocked with the sort of bespoke tax breaks lawmakers in both parties have long lamented. In a search for votes, and hemmed in by their tiny majority, Republicans have proposed a hodgepodge of tax provisions aimed at narrow constituencies.

— Senate warnings ahead: Key Senate Republicans say the House GOP’s proposal to slash funding for the nation’s largest food aid program would push too many costs on states and won’t pass their chamber. “I’ve read [the House’s bill], and I think it’s going to have a do-over,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said.

Samuel Benson, Brian Faler, Jasper Goodman, Meredith Lee Hill, Katherine Tully-McManus and Lawrence Ukenye contributed to this report.

Speaker Mike Johnson is racing to resolve a suite of remaining issues with the GOP megabill just days before he hopes to put it up for a floor vote.

Warring factions inside the House Republican Conference huddled with the speaker Thursday, jockeying primarily over what to do about SALT — the state-and-local-tax deduction.

But other disagreements are also raging around major spending cuts for Medicaid, clean energy tax credits enacted under former President Joe Biden and a slew of other issues that are part of a complex funding puzzle.

Inside the meeting, lawmakers discussed how to make more room for SALT, with some lawmakers still favoring a tax hike on the wealthiest Americans to make all the math work, according to two Republicans granted anonymity to describe the private talks. GOP leaders have pushed back against such a move. SALT Republicans, including a die-hard group of five New Yorkers, reiterated in the meeting that they would not accept the $30,000 cap currently in the megabill draft.

The speaker also brought Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.) into the conversation via speakerphone, according to the people, after SALT members asked her to leave a recent meeting amid concerns she was more sympathetic to her Republican colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee than her fellow New York lawmakers.

Another Republican involved in the talks, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said they were optimistic that the speaker would “pull a rabbit out of a hat again.” Negotiators in the room were working to find “a sweet spot” on SALT and things were moving in a positive direction, the Republican said.

Lawmakers submitted a host of requests for estimates of how certain changes would fit together, and they are now waiting to get the data before making bigger alterations. Many “more details” are needed to figure out the funding puzzle around SALT, according to another person with direct knowledge of the talks.

Johnson, leaving the meeting at one point, told reporters he was committed to working through a slew of major issues potentially impeding passage of the party-line package central to enacting President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.

“I’ve committed to working through the weekend on it,” Johnson told reporters. He added they would get to “a point” where it can go on the floor.

He was optimistic that the bill could still pass the chamber by his Memorial Day target, but significant hurdles remain.

Hard-liners are pushing for deeper Medicaid cuts — including moving up the start date of the new federal work requirements embedded in the bill, which currently wouldn’t go into effect until 2029. Moderates are wary of making deeper cuts to Medicaid and are expecting to meet with GOP leaders later Thursday.

“For me, the numbers matter. I don’t want to, you know, get further into debt, and the deficit is important to me,” Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) said. “The numbers don’t add up.”

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said lawmakers need to factor in Medicaid work requirements and how to ensure states that have not yet expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act aren’t incentivized to expand.

One key hard-right negotiator, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), left the meeting early after again panning the current bill in a morning TV appearance.

GOP leaders want to advance the megabill next week, sending it first to the Budget Committee Friday, then to the Rules Committee and — they hope — on to the floor.

“It’s going to come up in Rules on Monday, and we’ll be voting on it next week,” said House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), leaving the closed-door meeting Thursday.

Hailey Fuchs, Benjamin Guggenheim and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.

Democratic lawmakers are trying to block billions of dollars in arms sales to two Middle Eastern countries to protest investments in President Donald Trump’s personal business and a jet offered to him.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) plans to force a vote on five major arms sales to the United Arab Emirates and Qatar valued at $3.5 billion following Qatar’s offer to gift a luxury Boeing aircraft to use as Air Force One and the UAE’s move to invest $2 billion in Trump’s cryptocurrency venture. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) plans to co-lead the measures to block UAE arms sales.

The vote offers Democrats — who have struggled to form a message in opposition to Trump’s agenda — a line of attack that could resonate with voters. And it deals a tough vote to Republicans, who will have to choose between their allegiance to the president and their ethical and logistical concerns.

The resolutions target the sale to Qatar of MQ-9 Reaper drones and joint direct attack munitions, as well as other munitions and radar systems worth $1.9 billion.

“This isn’t a gift out of the goodness of their hearts — it’s an illegal bribe that the president of the United States is chomping at the bit to accept,” Murphy said in an interview. Unless Qatar revoked its offer to give Trump the plane, he said, he would move to block the arms sale.

The lawmakers are trying to introduce similar resolutions to block sales to the UAE of around $1.6 billion, including Chinook helicopters, munitions and support for the UAE’s fleet of Apache and Black Hawk helicopters.

The measures will be introduced as so-called joint resolutions of disapproval, which would force a floor vote. It’s unclear whether the resolutions will pass, but they could gain the support of a few Republican lawmakers uncomfortable with the arrangements.

Administration officials and some Republican allies in Congress have dismissed the criticism leveled by Murphy and others against the president.

“Chris Murphy is running for president,” Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair, said Tuesday on Fox News, in response to Murphy’s criticism of the potential deals. “The Middle East is, like I said, changing every day. The more President Trump can convince those people that they should have an investment in the United States, the closer we get the less likely we are to have problems.”

The White House National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment.

The Qatar plane deal has opened a fresh — and rare — instance of Republicans joining Democrats to push back against the Trump administration.

Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), have voiced skepticism, if not outright opposition, over the optics and logistics of Trump’s plans to accept a luxury jet from a Middle Eastern nation.

Lawmakers and experts argue the gift would come at a huge cost to taxpayers since officials would need to overhaul the jet to meet security needs. Trump has proposed that the jet, after his time in office, would stay at his presidential library, which some lawmakers have criticized as inappropriate.

“I have some concerns about the aircraft coming to the United States from the Qataris, from a security aspect,” House Armed Services Vice Chair Rob Wittman (R-Va.) said Thursday at POLITICO’s Security Summit. “Air Force One has a very specific function, has things that it has to have on board. All the questions, too, of accepting gifts from foreign governments, all those ethical questions, I think all those are very pertinent questions that need to be answered.”

Speaker Mike Johnson is scrambling to negotiate with competing factions of his conference as the clock ticks to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda through the House next week.

Here’s a sampling of what each group is gunning for:

THE SALT-IES: The so-called SALT Republicans are at an impasse with GOP leadership over the state-and-local-tax deduction.

House Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) told reporters Wednesday there’s only about $50 billion to work with — putting Johnson in a difficult spot to placate the mostly blue-state members who are pushing to beef up the $30,000 cap currently in the bill.

“The window is closing” for a deal, said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), a SALT and Ways and Means member. “The closer to Memorial Day we get, the low-sodium diets of many of my colleagues on Ways and Means is growing.”

THE HARD-LINERS: Conservatives are livid that the current language in the GOP megabill doesn’t start work requirements for Medicaid until 2029. (It’s one of the many ways Trump’s megabill would dish out the perks now and postpone the pain.)

Johnson wouldn’t comment when asked if he’d be open to their demands to begin the work requirements earlier: “We have lots of discussions ahead,” he said.

The speaker will meet with a cross-section of these two warring groups at 10 a.m. in his office.

THE CLEAN ENERGY MODS: More than a dozen House Republicans are pushing to undo a rollback of Inflation Reduction Act clean energy credits. Led by Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), the Republicans warned in a statement that an abrupt stop of the tax credits, implementation of new restrictions and changes to provisions that help fund projects could smother investments in new energy technologies.

However, they’re up against hard-liners pushing for even greater rollbacks of clean energy credits. Some want a full repeal.

THE MEDICAID MODS: A group of Republican centrists not on Energy and Commerce were surprised by some of the Medicaid provisions included in the committee-passed bill.

One area of concern is over a requirement for some Medicaid beneficiaries with incomes at or just above the poverty line to start paying for a portion of their care.

“That was a new element that … had not been discussed with us before,” GOP Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (Pa.) told POLITICO. The group of centrists plan to meet with Johnson on Thursday morning.

Watch for whether House GOP leaders make progress in various meetings Thursday and during their conference-wide reconciliation meeting at 2:30 p.m. The megabill then heads to the Budget Committee on Friday and the Rules Committee next week.

Want your own reconciliation briefing? Request an invite to our Policy Intelligence Briefing happening today from 2–3 p.m with our Jennifer Scholtes, Ben Leonard, Meredith Lee Hill and Benjamin Guggenheim. Pro subscribers should have already received an invite.

What else we’re watching:

— SNAP cuts are in, for now: House Agriculture advanced legislation down party lines on Wednesday night that would cut up to $300 billion in food aid spending to pay for Republicans’ domestic policy megabill and some farm programs. But Chair John Boozman (R-Ark.) quickly released a statement hinting that the SNAP cost-share plan might not fly in the Senate.

— Will the crypto bill return next week?: Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday that the upper chamber is unlikely to begin considering landmark cryptocurrency legislation again this week as negotiators close in on a deal. “They’re still working at it,” Thune told reporters Wednesday afternoon, though he left the door open to floor action next week.

— Child online safety bill is back: Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) reintroduced a popular kids online safety bill after successful industry efforts to kill the legislation last year. The Kids Online Safety Act, a measure that would require social media companies to design their platforms with more safety guardrails for children, stalled last time after House leaders balked over free speech concerns. But Johnson has promised this Congress will pass legislation to make online spaces safer for kids.

Jordain Carney, Jasper Goodman, Meredith Lee Hill, Ben Leonard, Ruth Reader, Josh Siegel, Jennifer Scholtes and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.

GOP staff for the the House Agriculture Committee is warning industry groups that they need to get behind the panel’s megabill package of $300 billion in nutrition spending cuts or risk getting nothing from the $60 billion in farm bill investments also included in the proposal.

Trevor White, the committee’s policy director, sent an email to agriculture lobbying groups encouraging them to make “statements of support” and conduct “direct outreach to members off the committee” to ensure that the farm bill programs survive the reconciliation process.

“With the current budget environment, once this train leaves the station, if these investments are NOT included, it is hard to see a path forward for the remaining pieces of the farm bill,” White said in the email sent Tuesday that was viewed by POLITICO.

House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson (R-Pa.) told reporters recently that he still feels “positive” about being able to pass a separate farm bill to update policies that didn’t make it into the megabill central to enacting broad swaths of President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda. But White’s comments are the latest indication that hopes of securing a new farm bill this year are fading fast.

Thompson has also said that he wants to spearhead a “skinny,” budget-neutral farm bill later this year, if Republicans can pass the expensive farm safety net programs through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process. However, Democrats have threatened that the cuts to SNAP spending being pursued as part of the the GOP’s party-line package will mean they won’t support a separate farm bill this year.

“Chairman Thompson looks forward to working with the Ranking Member and our Senate counterparts to move the remaining farm bill provisions after reconciliation,” committee spokesperson Ben Goldey said in a statement Wednesday.

White’s email also encouraged agriculture groups to reach out to lawmakers who aren’t on the House Agriculture Committee to encourage them to support the measure’s farm bill provisions. That pressure could be critical to helping those programs survive a full House vote, as some fiscal hawks typically vote against the major subsidies included in the farm bill.

“The survival of these investments beyond our committee should not be seen as a foregone conclusion,” White wrote. “If your organization would like to see these investments included as the process moves forward, the Chairman would greatly appreciate your help by making statements of support, but also direct outreach to members off the committee.”

He also asked groups to report supportive statements and lobbying efforts to committee staff.

More than a dozen House Republicans are urging party leaders to undo key rollbacks of Democrats’ clean energy credits that the Ways and Means Committee pushed through Wednesday as part of the party’s megabill.

Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.) and 12 other moderate Republicans, warned in a statement that abruptly cutting off Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, imposing onerous restrictions and changing provisions that help fund projects more quickly could stifle investments in new energy technologies.

“We must ensure certainty for current and future energy investments to meet the nation’s growing power demand and protect our constituents from higher energy costs,” Kiggans said in the statement with Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), Mark Amodei (R-Nev.), Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), David Valadao (R-Calif.), Gabe Evans (R-Colo.), Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.), Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Young Kim (R-Calif.).

The Republicans stopped short of vowing to reject the party-line package if it isn’t changed before it moves to the House floor, which leadership intends to do next week. But their pressure could give cover to Senate Republicans who have already pledged to ease some of the rollbacks once the bill moves to their chamber for consideration.

The House Republicans said the Ways and Means Committee’s rewrite of IRA credits includes “reasonable phase-out schedules,” but they called for three changes to provisions that they suggest could undermine the intent of the credits to grow energy production and manufacturing.

First, they said so-called foreign entities of concern requirements applied to various tax credits — which are intended to curtail the ability of Chinese companies to benefit from the subsidies — are “overly prescriptive and risk undermining U.S. competitiveness by restricting domestic energy production.”

Second, they criticized the Ways and Means Committee’s mandate that access to tax credits is available only once a project starts producing energy, as opposed to when construction starts, which they say risks projects not getting built in time to meet the scheduled phaseout.

And lastly, they pushed to enable businesses to buy and sell clean energy credits — an option known as transferability — for a longer period to match the full phaseout period for various credits to provide “businesses with the flexibility necessary to make long-term investments in American energy.”

The committee’s bill bans the practice after only two years.

Despite the unlikelihood of House leadership allowing these changes, Ways and Means Committee leaders are acknowledging the Senate could act as a backstop.

Ways and Means vice chair Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), a defender of IRA clean energy credits, said in an interview Wednesday he hopes Senate Republicans will make changes to his committee’s rollback of incentives.

“There’s gonna be a lot of changes. It’s not over. We’re in the first quarter,” Buchanan said.

One of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress and one of the most outspoken are feuding over the cap on state and local deductions in the GOP’s sweeping tax bill.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene struck first at Rep. Mike Lawler, noting his tenuous grip on his suburban New York seat and questioning why effort to help him and other Blue State Republicans with an increase in the SALT deduction.

Legislation released this week by the House Ways and Means Committee increased the cap on the state and local tax deduction to $30,000. But so-called SALT Republicans, including New Yorkers Lawler and Nick LaLota, aren’t satisfied. They’ve threatened to withhold their votes from the GOP’s domestic policy package.

“Mike Lawler has a toss up seat,” Greene wrote on X on Wednesday. “What’s the point in Republicans fighting to protect and keep re-electing ‘Republicans’ if they constantly undermine the agenda America voted for???”

Lawler’s reply was scathing.

“Shockingly the ‘Jewish Space Laser’ lady once again doesn’t have a clue what she is talking about,” he wrote in response. “By the way, the reason you enjoy a gavel is because Republicans like me have won our seats. Good luck being in the Majority if we don’t.”

Lawler has long been a critic of the Georgia Republican. In May 2024, he panned her effort to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson from his post overseeing the Republican Caucus, calling it “lunacy” and a “temper tantrum.”

“Here is Mike Lawler claiming HE gave us the majority NOT President Donald Trump!!!,” Greene wrote in a repost of Lawler’s comment. “Did you all vote for Mike Lawler and his agenda???”

In his response, Lawler played up his overperformance in New York’s swingy 17th district — and his importance to a caucus that rules by the slimmest of margins.

“I’m 1 of only 3 Republicans in a district won by Harris,” he wrote. “I know math is difficult, but: 220-3=217.”

Michigan Rep. Shri Thanedar chose not to follow through on a threat to force a House vote on impeaching President Donald Trump Wednesday amid mounting pressure from fellow Democrats.

Thanedar did not call up his resolution as expected at a Wednesday evening vote series, and the window for action has now passed.

“After talking with many colleagues, I have decided not to force a vote on impeachment today,” Thanedar confirmed in a text message. “Instead, I will add to my articles of impeachment and continue to rally the support of both Democrats and Republicans to defend the Constitution with me.”

Democrats privately fumed this week after Thanedar pressed forward with his impeachment effort at a moment where they are seeking to put a spotlight on Republicans’ potential cuts to Medicaid and other federal programs as the GOP moves closer to a floor vote on its massive tax-cut bill.

Although many Democrats believe that Trump has committed impeachable offenses — many voted to impeach him twice during his first term — they saw Thanedar’s measure as a sideshow during a crucial week on Capitol Hill.

Several lawmakers — including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Greg Casar of Texas, Brad Schneider of Illinois and Jamie Raskin of Maryland — were spotted earlier in the day talking privately to Thanedar on the floor. Schneider emphasized the need to stay focused this week on the House GOP’s megabill, according to a person familiar with the situation who granted anonymity to describe the private conversation.

But Thanedar had insisted earlier Wednesday he would still force a vote.

Party leaders didn’t formally whip the impeachment measure, but Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California said they planned to vote to kill it.