Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) discusses efforts to pass the GOP reconciliation bill.
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00:00you wait for the key step tomorrow with the budget meeting is that going to be able to go forward
00:06we're talking a lot of holdouts out here right we're still talking to some of the members of
00:11the budget committee some of the members from the salt caucus but you know a few other issues to be
00:15worked out we've had some other meetings with speaker myself a number of members earlier today
00:21on salt we're working through some final issues this is always what happens when you have a big
00:25bill like this there's always final details to work out all the way up until the last minute so
00:31we're going to keep working there's a lot of work left to be done there's a you know there's a timeline
00:37that we've got to stay on and so bringing this bill to the floor next week is still on track
00:43and it's still important to deliver for the American people and for this president who
00:48campaigned on all of the things that are in this bill we deliver on all of president trump's priorities
00:53in this one big beautiful bill do you think work requirements the effective date for those could
00:58move up in order to try and get this closer to the finish line absolutely would that erode support
01:04that helps support how many years further up would you go um we haven't worked out those final details
01:13yet but i think you can expect to move on if buddy has to delay issues that are increasing that members
01:20are coming out here asking for changes in the bill what makes you so confident that next week is still
01:26uh realistic goal for passing i can say issues are increasing i was just in a briefing that we did
01:33with our full conference and all 11 committee chairs there were no new issues that came up in that
01:39meeting some of the members that you've been hearing from i've been hearing from them too and on the
01:44issues that they might be raising today some have been raising those same issues weeks some issues were
01:49already we've already committed to address in the manager's amendment at rules committee uh you know
01:55some issues still have to be finalized and so we're going to keep working through that's why
02:00it's never finished until the bill is actually on the floor and the vote's called if budget has to delay
02:06the markup how difficult does that make it to process everything uh i haven't talked to chairman
02:12arrington yet since we've been in the meeting um we're still moving forward with the timeline you
02:17know the bill will be on the floor next week he said they may have to come we're talking to some
02:22members obviously he's talking to his own members uh i was texting chairman arrington this morning
02:27about some of the conversations he's been having with budget committee members i was in a meeting with
02:32some of them with the salt members today so you know we're all in a lot of different meetings right
02:37now on a number of issues not many we've narrowed them down as you know we started with a large array
02:44of issues a month ago and then every step of the way we keep finalizing and getting agreements on
02:50certain issues and then you move on to the remaining issues and we've narrowed it down to just a handful
02:56or less than a handful of issues that still remain to be fixed we all know one of them is salt i'll
03:02readily admit that but we're narrowing those issues down and we're having a lot of conversations with
03:07the members we know who they are that still have questions 90 plus percent of our members are in full
03:13support of this bill let's not forget that do you think the house freedom caucus is moving the goal
03:17when we negotiated the first half of this two-step process and that's the budget the agreement was
03:27we make it a deficit neutral bill uh that was their main request we have exceeded that so we're gonna get
03:34there