Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah), a moderate Republican, called July 4 a “false deadline” for Republicans to pass their megabill and said it’s more important for the Senate to get it done “right” than fast.
In an interview at Politico’s Energy Summit in Washington on Tuesday, Curtis said he’s confident the bill would eventually pass.
But, he added, “I can’t tell you what it’s going to look like or when it’s going to pass.”
He signaled a lightly less optimistic note on whether it would pass by the GOP’s self-imposed July 4 deadline.
“Well, let me just say, I think a lot of us would be surprised if it passed by July 4,” Curtis said.
“I think that’s a false deadline,” he added. “I don’t think that we need to put a specific deadline on it. Let’s get it right.”
Other GOP senators have also publicly and privately voiced doubts about meeting the July 4 deadline that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) is shooting for as Senate Republicans remain divided on a number of hot-button issues.
On Monday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he thinks the deadline is still realistic.
“We certainly hope, I believe, we can still meet that,” Johnson said. “It’s up to the Senate, the bill’s in the Senate’s hands now. But I spoke with Leader Thune as recently as last night, he’s feeling very optimistic.”
At Tuesday’s summit, Curtis said he thinks the House-passed version unfairly rolls back some of the energy tax credits in Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). He said some of those tax credits “have run their life cycle” but it’s important to “be thoughtful in how we phase them out.”
“Banks, investors have invested billions of dollars based on the rules of the road, and you have employees who have set careers based on these things,” Curtis said.
“Let’s not destroy careers and things like that,” he added. “Let’s give people a chance to adjust. So in the case of those that it’s time to phase them out, I think how we phase them out matters.”
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