“We have a small subset of members who weren’t totally satisfied with the product as it stands,” the speaker said. “So, we’re going to talk about maybe going to conference with the Senate or adding an amendment, but we’re going to make that decision. We are going to continue to move forward.”

TRUMP-BACKED BUDGET BILL SURVIVES FIRST TEST IN HOUSE BUT FINAL PASSAGE UNCLEAR

The delay is a blow to Trump, who one day earlier demanded that Republicans “close your eyes” and vote for the measure, which allows committees to begin crafting his tax, border, and energy legislation. Several Republicans refused to back down and support the bill as deficit hawks remain concerned the Senate will not live up to the $2 trillion in cuts hard-liners brokered with House GOP leadership.

Johnson said Trump supported the decision to yank the bill.

“I stepped out to the side room over here and spoke with the president. Told him exactly what we’re doing,” Johnson told reporters. “He understands it. He supports the process. He wants us to do this right and do it well. And sometimes it takes a little bit more time to do that, so — but we have demonstrated this Republican conference has benefited over and over, this majority, that we deliver when the time comes and we are going to deliver this. So stay tuned tomorrow.”

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA), a holdout, told the Washington Examiner that Republicans are going to “figure something out tonight.” He said he’s prepared to vote yes “if we get done what we’re supposed to get done.”

He noted there are two paths being discussed, but declined to comment on the specifics.

“It’s [gonna take] too much time and I gotta go to a basketball game. I’m done, I gotta go get some exercise,” he said.

Punchbowl News reported that the less likely path involves both the House and the Senate going to conference over the budget. Another option is convening the Rules Committee for a third time this week and crafting procedural language that says the House will not put a budget resolution on the floor unless the Senate agrees to at least $1.5 trillion in cuts.

The resolution, which is just a broad framework and not the final bill, includes a $4 trillion to $5 trillion increase in the federal debt ceiling. The original House instructions would require $2 trillion in cuts, while the Senate’s version treats that figure as an aspirational goal and sets spending cuts at $4 billion, a temporary placeholder value.

The Senate approved the compromise resolution last week, a sign that the two chambers were increasingly in sync on the contours of the legislation. Holdouts were enraged, however, by the lack of firm commitment to spending cuts in the Senate language, claiming Senate Republicans were “making up math.”

One area of particular concern for House conservatives was the Senate using a novel accounting method that assumes the extension of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would have no impact on the deficit, therefore blunting the need to find trillions in cuts elsewhere to pay for it.

Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), another holdout, said he thinks it’s possible for him to get to a “yes” vote by Thursday.

“We’re just looking for any mechanism that would ensure that the final reconciliation bill is going to have the spending cuts in,” Smucker told reporters. “So there are several ways to do that that are being discussed.”

Once the resolution is approved, it unlocks a budget process called reconciliation that allows Senate Republicans to sidestep the 60-vote threshold of the filibuster.

GOP leadership wants to usher Trump’s priorities in “one big beautiful bill,” with the goal of passing it through the House and Senate by Memorial Day. With lawmakers set to leave Thursday afternoon for a two-week recess, Johnson is under extreme pressure to try and sway holdouts by Thursday morning.

The budget resolution barely cleared a procedural step in the House earlier Wednesday after three GOP lawmakers — Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), and Mike Turner (R-OH) — defected. Turner vowed to support the final vote, however, noting that he was opposed to unrelated language that was included in the procedural vote.

The push follows a period of intense lobbying from the president, who called on GOP holdouts to “stop grandstanding” at a National Republican Congressional Committee dinner on Tuesday night.

Trump also met with a group of Republicans at the White House on Tuesday, but only three members immediately flipped their vote — Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Greg Stuebe (R-FL), and Ron Estes (R-KS).

On Wednesday, a group of Freedom Caucus members met after the procedural vote to engage in conversations with Senate GOP leaders and get assurances there would be deeper spending cuts than the $4 billion target.

Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO), one of the holdouts, had said previously that he thinks the Senate has “no appetite” for spending cuts and will only “say it behind closed doors.”

“We just don’t trust the Senate,” Burlison said. “I think the Senate is prone to, set up to give us the shaft, like they’ve done for decades and decades. It’s like Lucy with the football.”

HOUSE GOP BUDGET IS IN DANGER AS HOLDOUTS DISMISS TRUMP’S OUTREACH

Leaving the meeting with the Senate, Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) declined to comment, noting it was a “private meeting.” Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris (R-MD) said leaving the Senate meeting he was “not as skeptical as I was two hours ago” but that he’s “not the only vote that was of concern.”

David Sivak contributed to this report.