House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled changes to President Trump's "big beautiful bill" Wednesday, including a more generous deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) with more changes to the package possible as fiscal conservatives hold out for additional concessions.
Johnson confirmed Wednesday that a SALT deal had been struck with a change that is set to be formalized in a "manager's amendment" in the House's Rules Committee.
The deal, Johnson said, includes a higher SALT deduction of $40,000 annually. That's an increase from the current $10,000 cap and from Johnson's initial offer of $30,000.
Meanwhile the political pressure for a vote on the overall bill is rising with the White House weighing in on multiple fronts . The focus shifted Wednesday afternoon to members of the fiscally conservative House Freedom Caucus, who remain defiant and say that more days of talks are needed for a bill that is "not ready."
These lawmakers went to the White House Wednesday afternoon for a two-hour meeting, with the press secretary offering afterwards that "the meeting was productive and moved the ball in the right direction" without offering additional details.
Apparently still unresolved are a series of issues, including an effort to reform and limit Medicaid spending — which many project could lead to millions of Americans losing healthcare coverage — and green energy credits that are also dividing Republicans.
Yet Speaker Johnson has told reporters his goal remains "to hold to the schedule," suggesting a vote remains possible as early as tonight.
Concession to the 'SALTY 5'
The concession from Johnson on SALT came after a group of blue-state Republicans — who described themselves as the "SALTY five" — held out for more generous provisions.
The group includes Mike Lawler, Nick LaLota, Andrew Garbarino, Elise Stefanik of New York, as well as Tom Kean of New Jersey and Young Kim of California.
LaLota touted the deal in a post Wednesday , saying of SALT deductions, "DC is poised to quadruple it." Lawler added in a television appearance that he would support it.
The deal is also expected to set a higher $500,000 cap on annual income for eligibility. The current bill begins to phase out the benefits for those with a modified adjusted gross income above $400,000.
Yet this deal is unlikely to be the final word on the SALT issue, with many of these Republican fiscal conservatives long opposed to any additional deductions. There is also less GOP support for SALT in the Senate, which has yet to weigh in.
And one of the key remaining fiscal hawk holdouts in the House — Rep. Chip Roy of Texas — immediately slammed the deal , suggesting it amounted to "buying a handful of seats ... in parochial tax subsidies in the form of SALT."
It was just one in a flurry of moves Wednesday across Washington, including a tense hearing in the House Rules Committee that had stretched for over 15 hours as of Wednesday afternoon, as Republicans race to bridge a series of fissures within the party ahead of the key vote in the House of Representatives.
But the apparent SALT deal could be a step toward resolving a key front vexing Republican leaders, even as the change is sure to add further to a multitrillion-dollar price tag for the overall bill.
A recent analysis from the Penn Wharton Budget Model , done before the more generous SALT deal was unveiled, estimated a possible increase in primary deficits of almost $3.3 trillion over 10 years.
The bill's overall price tag has raised the ire of deficit hawks, spooked bond markets , and was cited by Moody's during a recent downgrade of US creditworthiness but has done little to dissuade Trump, who traveled to Capitol Hill Tuesday to push undecided Republicans to vote yes, followed by another application of political pressure Wednesday afternoon at the White House.
This post has been updated with additional developments.
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.