The Senate Finance Committee released its revisions to President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful” bill Monday night, implementing changes to state and local tax (SALT) caps and green energy tax credits — drawing sharp disapproval from some GOP House members.
High SALT deduction caps were relentlessly pushed by the House members in the SALT Caucus, creating hurdles for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson as he sought to negotiate a deal to earn their votes. The caucus ultimately voted for the House-passed bill after negotiating a $40,000 SALT cap — but the Senate slashed the cap to $10,000, a change that could put the caucus’ votes at stake when the bill goes up for another House vote, assuming it passes the Senate.(RELATED: Senate GOP Pushes House Medicaid Reforms In More Conservative Direction)
WASHINGTON, DC – MAY 21: House Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) (2nd-R), accompanied by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) (L), Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) (2nd-L), Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) (3rd-L), Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) (4th-L), and Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) (R), speaks about the ongoing negotiations between House leadership, the White House and the House Freedom Caucus on the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” at the U.S. Capitol Building on May 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
SALT Caucus co-chairs, Republican Reps. Andrew Garbarino of New York and Young Kim of California, released a joint statement Monday night urging the Senate to support the House-passed SALT cap deductions.
“We have been crystal clear that the SALT deal we negotiated in good faith with the Speaker and the White House must remain in the final bill. It not only upholds President Trump’s commitment to raise the SALT cap, but has been praised by middle-class families, firefighters, law enforcement, small business owners, and hardworking Americans across the country,” Garbarino and Kim wrote. “Instead of undermining the deal already in place and putting the entire bill at risk, the Senate should work with us to keep our promise of historic tax relief and deliver on our Republican agenda.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Monday that negotiations would continue between the two houses to find a SALT number that both can agree on.
“We understand that it’s a negotiation,” Thune said. “Obviously there had to be some marker in the bill to start with. But we’re prepared to have discussions with our colleagues here in the Senate and figure out a landing spot.”
Republican New York Rep. Mike Lawler, a fellow caucus member, was sharper in his critique over the bill, posting to X, “Dead on arrival.”
Lawler went on to release a statement over the revisions, writing he is confident the original SALT deal will make it into the Senate’s version of the bill, and he will vote no if the Senate reduces the SALT cap.
Republican New York Rep. Nick LaLota, another member of the House SALT Caucus, responded to the revisions on X, claiming the Senate “doesn’t have the votes” in the House to pass the budget.
“The Senate doesn’t have the votes for $10k SALT in the House. And if they’re not sold on the House’s $40k compromise, wait until they crash the OBBB [one big, beautiful bill] and TCJA [Tax Cuts and Jobs Act] expires — when SALT goes back to unlimited at year-end,” LaLota wrote. “They won’t like that one bit.”
Both chambers have long known that they would come to a crossroads over SALT. Kim told the Daily Caller News Foundation in early June that anything under the House-passed $40,000 SALT cap would be a “nonstarter,” and multiple GOP senators have also been vocal about their relative indifference to SALT policies compared to blue state Republican House members.
SALT deductions predominately affect high-tax blue states such as New York — which Garbarino, Lawler and LaLota represent — and California — which Kim represents. By contrast, only one Republican senator currently represents a state which voted Democratic in the last presidential election.
However, it is not just moderate blue state SALT Caucus members who have expressed dissatisfaction with the Senate’s recent changes to the bill. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus (HFC) members are also upset with the changes made to the budget’s energy provisions. While House-passed bill moved to cut Biden-era green energy subsidies, Senate Finance Committee’s revisions include language allowing for expanded provisions for green energy tax credits, failing to immediately eliminate solar and wind credits.
Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy, a fiscal hawk and advocate for eliminating the energy subsidies, posted on X Monday night, “Yeah, I will not vote for this.”
Roy also reposted an X thread criticizing the Senate bill’s energy provisions. Republican Missouri Rep. Eric Burlison, a fellow HFC member, also reposted the thread while calling on the Senate to either “hold the line or go even further” in rolling back the green energy subsidies.
Yet another HFC member, Texas Republican Rep. Keith Self, expressed concerns over the fiscal nature of the budget bill, pushing the Senate to “get serious about reducing spending.”
“The U.S. is $36 trillion in debt and it is expected to hit $50 trillion within seven years. Our national debt is the greatest threat our country faces. The Senate needs to get serious about reducing spending, while the House begins codifying DOGE cuts,” Self wrote on X. “These changes would be historic, but the time to act is now!”
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