Inside the negotiations on Trump’s GOP megabill, from the Lubbock lawmaker whose name is on the legislation

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WASHINGTON — As Republicans worked to pass their landmark tax and spending bill, much of the spotlight fell on President Donald Trump and the GOP holdouts imperiling the measure.

But behind the scenes, U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington of Lubbock — whose name was affixed to the bill as its lead author — played a key role in wrangling the fractious GOP conference behind their party leader’s signature legislation. In the end, Arrington and other senior House Republicans reined in the would-be GOP rebels — including some fellow Texans — and sent the megabill to Trump’s desk by his self-imposed and seemingly improbable July 4 deadline.

In an interview with The Texas Tribune recounting the monthslong negotiations, Arrington detailed the GOP’s fateful decision to pack its agenda into one package, rather than splitting it into two bills, and outlined how leadership brought the obstructers in line by moving up the timeline for the bill’s Medicaid work requirements and repeal of clean energy tax credits. He also waved off concerns the bill could hurt swing district Republicans in the midterms, arguing the economy would see a boost from the conservative priorities included in the package.

To Arrington, the megabill delivered on the mandate he saw in the GOP’s clean sweep of Congress and the White House in the November elections.

“I think too often we fall short. I think too often we squander these things,” he said. “I think this was the most consequential piece of legislation for making a difference that I've ever worked on and may ever work on in my lifetime.”

Before there was even a bill to vote on, Republicans had a loose collection of ideas they wanted to push through both chambers. The question was how to do it.

The first option was to codify their priorities through two separate bills; one would focus on border funding and energy policy, while the other would focus on extending tax cuts from Trump’s first term. The second option was to combine everything into one bill — or, as Trump would later dub it, “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

Arrington originally leaned toward the dual-step option, figuring Congress could quickly pass the first bill and score an early win for Trump’s agenda. But he eventually backed the one-bill approach.

“We were going to sacrifice a lot on the spending side and on the pro-growth tax policy side if we moved a security bill without attaching all the other components,” the Lubbock Republican said. Consolidating the legislation, he said, gave swing-district Republicans the courage to vote for steeper cuts knowing they could leverage other, more popular provisions of the bill as political cover to justify their support.

Republicans arrived at the all-in-one strategy in February, setting the stage for the first of many disagreements that bubbled up in the coming months.

Arrington said his north star throughout the negotiations was to pass a budget reconciliation act that did not balloon the federal deficit, and that required steep spending cuts.

Whether he was successful in this endeavor remains in doubt. According to an analysis by the nonpartisan congressional budget office, the final version of the reconciliation bill is expected to grow the deficit by $3.4 trillion over the next 10 years.

Arrington acknowledged the bill’s imperfections but said Trump made clear in Oval Office conversations and phone calls that there would be future opportunities to further slash federal spending. Arrington also estimated the 10% baseline tariffs Trump established for most other countries would bring in a little less than $1 trillion over the next four years, further offsetting the megabill’s costs.

Arrington believes these reservations are outweighed by provisions — including enhanced border protections, Medicaid reform and sweeping tax cuts — that bring longtime conservative priorities to fruition.

The House originally sought deep cuts, passing an early resolution to trim $1.5 trillion of spending to offset planned tax breaks. But the Senate only wanted to see $4 billion in cuts — a move that sent alarm bells ringing among the fiscal hawks in the lower chamber who feared greater cuts would never come if they didn’t stake out their ground.

“The Senate sent over something that was not responsible,” Arrington said. On April 9, House leadership canceled a vote on the resolution as they faced down a defection from fiscal hardliners.

Arrington, other senior House lawmakers and representatives from the White House met to discuss their path forward. One option was to set up a conference committee, made up of senators and House members, to work out the differences and come to a compromise that would pass muster on both sides of the Capitol. That idea was quickly nixed over concerns that it could indefinitely stall the legislative process.

After overnight negotiations, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune appeared together to pledge their commitment to the $1.5 trillion cuts. Arrington celebrated the move.

“We forced our conference to follow through, and I think that made all the difference,” he said.

The individual congressional committees then hunkered down and got to work. When each panel submitted its part of the legislation to Arrington’s committee, several exceeded their spending limits, prompting an outcry from budget panel members in the hardline House Freedom Caucus, including Rep. Chip Roy of Austin.

Roy and his cadre wanted to work out the spending reductions before the bill headed to the floor. Arrington thought addressing their concerns after the committee-wide vote would be more productive. “We need to get it out of committee,” he told them.

They did not budge, but Arrington called a vote of the full budget committee anyway, culminating in a May 16 showdown. The bill failed, 21-16.

Arrington said he went ahead with the vote knowing he would probably lose because he “wanted to hold people accountable for their position.”

Through the weekend, Arrington and the holdouts hosted marathon negotiating sessions with members of Republican leadership and committee staff. To the budget chair, these sticking points served as a “microcosm” of similar concerns mirrored throughout the caucus, and that would play out again in public view during the bill’s final stages.

To get hardline conservatives on board, leadership promised an expedited implementation of Medicaid work requirements and a swift repeal of clean energy tax credits from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act. In exchange, the resistant members voted present, rather than against the bill, allowing it to advance by a single vote.

It passed the full chamber by the same margin four days later.

In the Senate’s hands, the megabill underwent further changes, including more cuts to Medicaid, softer reductions to the federal food stamps program and more time to phase out green energy tax subsidies.

Skeptical House members watched these changes with a wary eye and publicly threatened to be one of just four defectors required to tank the 800-page legislation.

Arrington was determined to hold the querulous GOP coalition together. In a flurry of phone calls and conversations with senators, leadership and the White House, he worked to assuage the concerns of House holdouts while attempting to reinstate the cuts they had secured in the House’s draft of the bill.

The Senate passed its altered version and left Republican members in a bind. They could set up a lengthy conference between the two chambers or reject the bill and send it back to the upper chamber. But these options, which likely would have resulted in gridlock and an incensed Trump, were untenable.

“It became clear to all of us that we would imperil all of the good things that we’ve done,” Arrington said. The Senate had cornered the House, and now the irate hardliners had to be brought back on board.

Over a grueling 24-hour period, Trump talked with the holdouts and convinced them to switch their vote by vowing to aggressively implement the energy tax credit repeals — which he followed through on in a Monday executive order — and promising that windows to cut more spending would arise down the road, including in the leadup to an end-of-September governing funding deadline.

On July 3, the House passed the bill. One day later, Trump signed it into law.

Public polling has shown widespread opposition to the bill, with many concerned about cuts to food stamps and Medicaid. Democrats are seizing on the opportunity with ads blaming vulnerable Republicans for the bill, including their top target in Texas, Rep. Monica De La Cruz of Edinburg.

Arrington said he is not worried.

“I think voters are going to experience the benefits economically,” he said, predicting that the legislation will boost the economy. He also pushed back on claims that cuts to Medicaid and food stamps will disproportionately impact impoverished Americans, saying the bill is “not going to kick anyone off of those programs that are eligible.”

Under the new law, some recipients of these welfare services will be required to prove they are employed or actively seeking work. Caretakers, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups are exempt.

Medicaid advocates have expressed outrage over new administrative requirements added by the bill, including those that could kick recipients off their insurance if they do not properly and promptly complete certain paperwork.

Through untold hours and late nights of negotiations and counseling sessions with frustrated members, Arrington said he kept his mind on securing Trump’s signature.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said Arrington’s support for the bill, from his committee through final passage, “was critical, and he helped bring it home.”

“I’m thankful to count Jodey as one of my closest friends, and one of the most effective and consequential Members of Congress,” the Louisiana Republican said in a statement.

Other Republicans who worked with Arrington on the bill also credited him for helping guide it through choppy waters.

The budget committee’s vice chair, Rep. Lloyd Smucker, pointed to Arrington’s “unwavering principles, and his ability to bring people together to deliver results,” calling him “one of the most articulate and persuasive voices in Congress.”

Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde called Arrington’s efforts “central” to the success of the bill, adding, “I look forward to his leadership as we tee up our second budget reconciliation bill.” Such a bill would put Arrington at the middle of what’s sure to be another contentious fight.

Passing the first one was not easy. It required Republican lawmakers to take what could be a politically toxic vote to cut welfare programs their constituents rely on, in exchange for a slew of other GOP priorities pushed by Trump.

Despite opposition from the other side of the aisle, Arrington saw the November election, which handed Republicans a trifecta in Washington, as a demand for change that the bill will deliver.

“When we said failure wasn't an option,” he said, “we meant it.”

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