Republican National Committee (RNC) chairman Michael Whatley encouraged Senate Republicans to advance the House-approved spending bill despite the upper chamber’s concerns.
“We’ve seen the House deliver on the ‘big, beautiful bill.’ We need the Senate to do the same,” Whatley said during a Sunday appearance on John Catsimatidis’s radio show, “Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770 AM.
“I think we’re going to have a lot of time to discuss over the next month what the Senate needs to do to get this bill done,” he added.
Whatley said the bill’s ability to succeed will help set the party up for the approaching 2026 midterm elections.
“In the House we’re going to have a five-seat majority going into the [2026] election. There has never been an election with a five-seat majority for either party going into it. We have our work cut out for us there,” Whatley said.
“But if the economy is strong, and the Republicans stay united, and the Democrats continue to double-down on stupid, which is what they’re doing every single day … then we’re going to be in a position to expand that majority in the House and hopefully hold our own in the Senate,” the RNC chair continued.
Some Senate Republicans have indicated they will not back the bill in its current form.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has pushed back on Medicaid reform while Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has questioned the increase to the debt ceiling limit. Several other senators have also expressed concerns about Medicaid cuts.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and President Trump have encouraged senators to approve the “big, beautiful bill” in a timely manner.
“It blocks a huge tax increase, it creates much better regulatory environment. It takes out a great deal of the waste in government. It’s not perfect. Look. We balanced the budget for four straight years for the only time in the last century, but we didn’t do it overnight. We didn’t do it the first or second year,” Gingrich said during his Friday night appearance on Fox News’ “Jesse Waters Primetime.”
“You have to chip away at these things. Get the best you can plan to come back again next year or come back this fall on the appropriations bills, but keep moving,” the former House speaker told guest host Kayleigh McEnany.
