WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Thursday said he was “pleading” with Senate leaders to keep the state and local tax deduction cap at the same level it was at in the House-passed version of the bill containing President Donald Trump’s agenda. 

Johnson's comments come as Republican House members from Democratic states with high taxes — who have hung their hat on the SALT issue — are warning their Senate counterparts that changing the level would threaten their support of the bill when it returns to the lower chamber.

What You Need To Know

  • Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Thursday said he was “pleading” with Senate leaders to keep the state and local tax deduction cap at the same level it was at in the House passed version of the bill containing President Donald Trump’s agenda
  • Johnson's comments come as Republican House members from Democratic states with high taxes – who have hung their hat on the SALT issue — are warning their Senate counterparts that changing the level would threaten their support of the bill when it returns to the lower chamber
  • The SALT issue is of particular importance to Republicans who represent districts in blue states with high taxes such as New York, New Jersey and California; An increase in the cap on the SALT deduction was painstakingly negotiated to $40,000 in the lower chamber and included in the bill that passed the House
  • But Senators are less incentivized by the issue, particularly because — as Thune but bluntly following a meeting with Trump at the White House on Wednesday — there are no Republican Senators representing high-tax blue states.

“I’m asking them, requesting them, pleading with them to keep it at the level that we negotiated here because it was very delicately negotiated,” Johnson told reporters at the Capitol. 

He added that he had just spoken with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., Thursday morning and is being “deliberate” in reminding his counterparts in the upper chamber, as they work to take the House-passed bill and alter it in order to get it through their chamber, of the “delicate balance” in the House. 

The bill would extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts while temporarily adding new ones — such as no taxes on tips and overtime pay — designate additional funds for defense and border security, and seek to make up for lost revenue to the federal government from tax cuts in part by making changes to programs such as Medicaid and SNAP.

The House would need to pass the legislation, which Trump calls his “one big, beautiful bill,” again after it clears the Senate. Trump said he wants it on his desk by July 4. 

The SALT issue is of particular importance to Republicans who represent districts in blue states with high taxes such as New York, New Jersey and California, and some House lawmakers from those areas have made it the key to getting their support on Trump’s legislation. 

An increase in the cap on the SALT deduction was painstakingly negotiated to $40,000 in the lower chamber and included in the bill that passed the House. 

“If the Senate unwinds the House’s $40K SALT deal, it’s like digging up buried radioactive waste—reckless and sure to contaminate the whole One Big Beautiful Bill,” Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., wrote on X. “Best to leave it alone.”

LaLota’s New York Republican colleague, Rep. Mike Lawler, similarly took to X this week to warn that changing the $40,000 level “will derail final passage of the bill.” 

But senators are less incentivized by the issue, particularly because — as Thune put bluntly following a meeting with Trump at the White House on Wednesday — there are no Republican senators representing high-tax blue states.

“We also understand that we're going to have to probably do something there, but we also start from a position that there really isn't a single Republican senator who cares much about the SALT issue,” Thune told reporters outside the West Wing. 

Thune said the issue came up in the meeting with the president and acknowledged the delicate politics around the issue. 

“We understand that it's about 51 and 218,” he said of the numbers needed for the bill to pass each chamber. “So we will work with our House counterparts and with the White House to try and get that issue in a place where we can deliver the votes and get the bill across the finish line.”

Thune can only afford to lose the support of three Republicans in his chamber on the bill and is contending with concerns being expressed by some GOP senators about the amount the legislation would add to the national deficit. Other Republican senators have voiced caution about potential impacts to Medicaid.