A split of Mike Johnson and Donald Trump. (Getty Images)
He also said there were multiple ways the House could move forward and Republicans would look at each one. Johnson said, "Everything is moving along just fine. We have a little bit of room here to work, and we're going to use that."
The House floor was paralyzed for over an hour during an earlier unrelated vote as Johnson met with Republican holdouts behind closed doors.
Two sources in the room said the holdouts did not speak with Trump, though it's not clear if he called people individually.
Outside that room, in the cavernous House chamber, lawmakers began filtering out or impatiently pacing as time went by with little information.
Democrats, meanwhile, began calling for Republican leaders to close the lingering vote.
Tensions were high for those GOP lawmakers who remained on the House floor, Fox News Digital was told – and much of that frustration is aimed at Johnson.
"I think he's quickly losing faith from the rest of us. I mean, he kept the entire conference out on the floor for 80 minutes while you play grab-a-- with these people," one House Republican fumed. "And all day it was like, ‘Oh, we’re going to get this done.'"
That House Republican said, "All the chatter we were hearing was [holdouts were] down to single digits. But 17, 20 people were in that room. So clearly there was a much bigger problem than they were letting on all day."
The gap between the House and Senate versions is significant; the House version that passed in late February calls for at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, while the Senate's plan mandates at least $4 billion.
Some conservatives are also wary of congressional leaders looking to use the current policy baseline to factor the total amount of dollars the bill will add to the federal deficit. The current policy baseline allows lawmakers to essentially zero out the cost of extending Trump's 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) because they are already in effect.
"We've got to have something more substantive out of the Senate. If you were going to sell your house, and I offered you a third of the price, you would laugh," Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., one of the earliest holdouts, told reporters on Wednesday.
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U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., speaks to reporters following a House Republican caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 27, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The House and Senate must pass identical versions of the final bill before it can get to Trump's desk to be signed into law.
They must do so before the end of this year, when Trump's TCJA tax cuts expire – potentially raising taxes on millions of Americans.
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Trump himself worked to persuade holdouts both in a smaller-scale White House meeting on Tuesday and in public remarks at the National Republican Congressional Committee.
He also fired off multiple Truth Social posts pushing House Republicans to support the measure, even as conservatives argued it would not go far enough in fulfilling his own agenda.
"Republicans, it is more important now, than ever, that we pass THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL. The USA will Soar like never before!!!" one of the posts read.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mike-johnson-punts-house-vote-trump-tax-agenda-after-gop-rebellion-threatened-defeat