Senate Republicans put House on notice: We won't accept your Trump agenda bill without changes

As House Republicans scramble to corral the votes to pass a massive bill for President Donald Trump's agenda, their Senate counterparts are making clear the emerging package won’t fly as written when it reaches them.

WASHINGTON — As House Republicans scramble to corral the votes to pass a massive bill for President Donald Trump's agenda, their Senate counterparts are making clear the emerging package won’t fly as written when it reaches them.

Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., was categorical that the product coming out of various House committees cannot pass the Senate as it currently stands.

“No. We’ll make changes,” Hoeven said. “We’ve been talking with the House and there’s a lot of things we agree on. … But there’ll be changes in a number of areas.”

It wouldn’t surprise House members to learn that their Senate colleagues want to put their own fingerprints on the final multitrillion-dollar package. But Republican senators have already begun to identify a variety of provisions in the House measure that they’re targeting for revisions — from Medicaid concerns to clean energy funding to spectrum policy and overall red ink.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., came out against the emerging House legislation this week, saying it will explode the U.S. budget deficit.