TURBULENCE

Major Unexpected Problem for Trump’s Big Bill Deadline

Mother Nature threw the president a curveball.

Donald Trump faces storms and headwinds as he tries to get his signature spending bill across the line by a Friday deadline.

That’s both literal and figurative storms and headwinds. Severe weather grounded planes in D.C.-area airports on Tuesday, while House lawmakers scrambled to get back to Washington after the “Big Beautiful Bill” scraped through the Senate.

The House could vote on its final passage as early as Wednesday, if it manages to clear a procedural vote first thing in the morning that several rebel Republicans are threatening to oppose. The president wants the bill passed by July 4, but various GOP lawmakers have cast doubt on that timeline and criticized the version of the spending package that’s emerged from the Senate.

Lawmakers who were not at the Capitol on Tuesday night rushed to make it on time, but some were forced to find alternative routes.

“Driving through the night to make votes,” Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina wrote on X, responding to a journalist’s post about the flight delays. The stunt-loving lawmaker shared a series of videos of herself in her pajamas during the road trip.

“Let’s get the Big Beautiful Bill passed tomorrow!” she wrote in one of them.

Rep. Russell Fry, also from South Carolina, said on Tuesday night he was road-tripping from Myrtle Beach.

“Flights up and down the East Coast are being canceled, but I’m not going to chance being stuck in Myrtle Beach in this historic opportunity,” he said in a video posted on X.

Ground stops had been issued at all three major D.C.-area airports through to 8 p.m. amid thunderstorm warnings in the region.

Delays were expected at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Dulles International, and Baltimore-Washington International until late Tuesday night.

While the storms eased in intensity after sunset, showers and isolated thunderstorms remained possible through Wednesday morning, according to local forecasts.

If all lawmakers manage to make it there, and Democrats remain united in voting “no,” Republicans can only afford to lose three votes to get the bill past the procedural hurdle, which needs to pass in order to get the bill to a floor vote.

“We’re monitoring the weather closely; we have to figure that out,” Johnson told reporters, according to The Hill. He said he wasn’t sure if there will be full attendance for the morning vote.

Democrats, too, spoke up about flight delays scuttling their plans to return to Washington.

‘S**TSHOW’

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Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin said his flight from Madison was canceled, so he would drive to Chicago to try and catch a 6 a.m. flight in order to vote against the “Big Ugly Bill.” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, an Illinois Democrat, said he was driving so he could vote “no” after his flight was cancelled.

With little room for defections, Trump and Johnson have called for unity in Republican ranks, but multiple House lawmakers have been fiercely critical of the bill that emerged from the Senate.

“What the Senate did, I’ll vote against it here and I’ll vote against it on the floor,” Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, a member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, told a House Rules meeting.

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Josephine HarveySenior News Reporter

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