Johnson Faces the Senate SALT Mines

As the House speaker struggles to find “equilibrium” in his conference between the deficit cutters and the SALT-cap raisers, he faces a potentially even more complicated problem down the line: the Senate.

Mike Johnson’s specific mention of the SALT cap was part of his broader plea to Senate Republicans to change the bill as little as possible once it reaches their chamber. In many ways, Johnson is telegraphing his anxieties. Photo: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Leigh Ann Caldwell

May 21, 2025

Yesterday, during Mike Johnson’s address to Republican senators at their weekly closed-door lunch, the House speaker spoke candidly about the biggest challenge facing the now offihcially named “One Big, Beautiful Bill”: the cap on the state and local tax deduction, a.k.a SALT. According to a person in attendance, Johnson described the difficulty in finding the “equilibrium” to satisfy blue-state Republicans, who are demanding a higher cap to provide tax relief for their high-income constituents—which adds hundreds of billions of dollars to the cost of the bill—and the hard-line conservatives demanding deficit reduction.