House passes reconciliation bill ahead of deadline: AFP helped make it happen

There were a lot of surprised doubters when, on May 22 — just one day before Congress left for its scheduled Memorial Day recess — the House of Representatives, under the leadership of Speaker Mike Johnson, passed the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act by just a single vote.

This bill delivers on several important fronts. It unleashes American energy, provides for increased border security, and, most importantly, permanently enshrines the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in the tax code.

House Republican leadership and key policy champions rose to the occasion in meeting Speaker Johnson’s ambitious agenda. But AFP — through its Protect Prosperity campaign and its unmatched grassroots army — has been a key driving force behind the permanent extension of the TCJA.

Since the start of the campaign, AFP:

• Held more than 500 events and rallies across the country with dozens of lawmakers. For instance, AFP’s grassroots activists mobilized more than a dozen Granite Staters outside U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas’ Manchester field office. You’ll see the team below.

• Hosted a nationwide grassroots blitz, knocking more than 15,000 doors and reaching out to 90,000+ voters alongside key lawmakers like U.S. Reps. David Schweikert and Juan Ciscomani in Arizona, Ashley Hinson in Iowa, and Ryan Mackenzie in Pennsylvania.
  
  You can watch quick videos below from Rep. Hinson during a door-knocking drive in Cedar Rapids with AFP’s Iowa team, and Rep. Ciscomani knocking doors with volunteers in Tucson.

• Hosted conversations with Speaker Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise, and GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain, which you can watch below.
  

• Launched highly targeted ads and testimonials on the need to extend the TCJA, one of which you can watch below.

• Held more than 1,000 meetings with key legislators and Hill staff to elevate and amplify the voices of millions of Americans who support extending the tax cuts.
• And commissioned comprehensive polling on voter attitudes about extending the TCJA in partnership with Public Opinion Strategies.

AFP helped turn ‘wishful thinking’ into legislative victory

“That’s wishful thinking.”

A member of Congress said it first, but it captured the sentiment of many on Capitol Hill when Speaker Johnson laid out an ambitious goal: to pass one “big, beautiful” reconciliation bill through the U.S. House of Representatives by Memorial Day.

The 2017 Trump tax cuts reduced the average family tax burden by $1,500 a year, lifted 6 million Americans out of poverty, and delivered record-low unemployment. But these tax cuts are scheduled to expire at the end of the year.

If that happens, working families and small businesses would be saddled with higher taxes, opportunities for entrepreneurs would be reduced, and an already bloated federal bureaucracy would get even bigger.

And that might not be the worst of it.

If pro-growth provisions in the TCJA expire, business costs will rise — slowing the economy, stalling job creation, and even leading to job losses.

Because businesses need time to plan, if the process of passing the reconciliation bill drags on into the summer, it would leave families and businesses right back where they started: higher costs, slower growth, and zero answers from the leaders they just elected — as we head into the 2026 midterms.

The real fight begins now

While House passage is a key milestone, the Senate must now follow suit. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has set an ambitious July 4 deadline.

Some doubt that the Senate can pass the bill at all, let alone meet this target. One senator remarked, “It’s not going to pass the Senate. It won’t.”

AFP accepts that challenge.

Click here if you want to play a part and let your senator know that you support extending the Trump tax cuts.