Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy is a holdout on the GOP tax and spending bill.
Roy — whose district includes San Antonio, Austin, and the Hill Country — is a member of the House Rules Committee.
"My colleagues in the Senate failed us," Roy told the committee during a tense hearing on Tuesday after the Senate narrowly passed the bill that includes $4 trillion in tax cuts. It would also increase the federal deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the next decade.
"If we're going to do the tax policy, at least do the spending policy," Roy said. "Have the courage and the fortitude to do what you campaign on when you're talking about balancing the dang budget."
In an interview with Politico after the hearing, Roy called the bill "garbage." He said it was a betrayal of a framework House conservatives worked out earlier this year with no new deficit spending.
Roy told Politico he thought the chances of the Senate bill passing the House in its current form by the end of the week are a "hell of a lot lower than they were even 48 hours ago."
President Trump has given lawmakers a deadline of July 4 to pass the bill "as is."
Republican leaders say they’re confident they can do it despite heavy opposition from conservative House members like Roy as well as Democrats, who have denounced the bill for different reasons.
They point to massive cuts to nutrition and health programs and the many ripple effects that could come from the largest cut to Medicaid since it was enacted in 1965.
