The late nights aren’t over for House Republicans — at least not this week. After trudging to Sunday night’s 10 p.m. Budget Committee meeting, the Rules Committee has it even worse: a 1:00 a.m. hearing on Wednesday morning for the one, big, sleep-depriving, bill. Will the nocturnal approach help move the package forward? Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) certainly hopes so.

“I told all the members on a conference call this morning that this is a consensus-building operation,” the Louisianan told reporters Monday. “It’s been a bottom-up process. And we’re almost there.”

That’s music to the ears of his chamber, which has endured overnighters, weekend work, and around-the-clock meetings to arrive at any sort of consensus on the major pieces of Donald Trump’s agenda. “There’s a lot more work to do,” Johnson conceded, “but I’m looking forward to very thoughtful discussions, very productive discussions, over the next few days — and I’m absolutely convinced we’re going to get this in final form and pass it.”

After the proposal failed to pass the Budget Committee Friday night, no one was quite sure what House leaders could expect on Sunday. But, after keeping several members in Washington to hash things out, Johnson was rewarded with a surprising breakthrough: the four Republicans who’d voted no a couple of days earlier — Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), and Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.) — moved the needle just enough to vote “present” on Sunday night, paving the way for the legislation to clear another hurdle.

Roy, who’d been one of the most outspoken opponents of the 1,100-page draft at the start of the weekend, posted that he was at least satisfied enough by the concessions conservatives won not to hold the bill in limbo. “Tonight, after a great deal of work and engagement over the weekend,” he explained, “the Budget Committee advanced a reconciliation bill that lays the foundation for much needed tax relief, border security, and important spending reductions and reforms. Importantly,” he continued, “the bill now will move Medicaid work requirements forward and reduces the availability of future subsidies under the green new scam. But, the bill does not yet meet the moment,” he cautioned. “… We can and must do better before we pass the final product.”

The Texan pointed out that he didn’t vote against the text “out of respect for the Republican conference and the President…” Insisting that more work would need to be done, Roy praised what he called a “strong step forward.” That included, among other things, an agreement to roll back some of the most egregious parts of Biden’s so-called Green New Deal and moving up the timeline on a Medicaid work requirement for all of those able-bodied enrollees who were added under the program’s COVID-era expansion. “I am proud of [Budget] Chairman [Jodey] Arrington (R-Texas), the Speaker, and my colleagues for the work we did to make progress with the White House. But,” he added, “we have to do more to deliver for the American people.”

Of course, the backdrop of these negotiations is the bleak news that Moody’s has dinged America’s credit rating from a perfect score to Aa1, “diminishing its status as the world’s highest-quality sovereign borrower.” The downgrade shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering the country has never been serious about paying down its ballooning debt. What the downgrade signals to the world is that the U.S. is a credit risk, and without substantive changes, it will not be able to borrow limitless amounts of money without consequences.

The Trump administration, which continues to insist that it inherited the deficit from Biden, vowed that it is “determined to bring [the debt] down and to undo the damage to the fiscal health of the United States that was wrought by [the last administration’s] reckless policies.” As dire as the news may be, it’s certainly bolstered the case of fiscal conservatives, who’ve spent the better part of four months arguing that Congress needs to do more to rein in runaway spending, especially now that they have a chance to make meaningful reforms.

Kansas’s Ron Estes (R) told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Monday that while “Moody’s hasn’t always gotten it right,” there are certainly some indications “that our spending is out of control.” “Going back to 2019, our spending has gone up 70%, even while revenue has gone up 50%. … And so, we want to make sure that as we pass the ‘one, big, beautiful bill,’ that it [focuses] on [questions like]: how do we keep the economy going and lower the deficit as we move forward?”

Just the interest on the debt, he pointed out, is bigger than the Defense budget. “It’s behind only Social Security and Medicare. And in the next couple of years, it’s expected to pass Medicare costs.” So the hard part for Republicans in this moment, he admits, is “we’ve got to be willing to actually address some of our issues and recognize that [hard] decisions [have to be] made.” If there is one bright side to Moody’s announcement, Estes agreed, it’s that there’s a new sense of urgency to act.

Either way, FRC’s Quena González stressed, GOP leadership has its hands full getting everyone on the same page before this bill hits the floor. “Speaker Johnson is balancing three wings of the GOP caucus in the House of Representatives: Fiscal conservatives (trying to maximize the moment and halt America’s slide into bloated deficits and debt), Republicans from high-tax states like New York, New Jersey, and California (who are worried that the state and local tax deduction will be too small to benefit their base), and moderate Republicans (especially from states that expanded Medicaid coverage back when the government promised to subsidize every $10 they spent on the ‘expansion population’ — i.e., the able-bodied and not-very-poor) who don’t want to see structural changes to Medicaid. And that’s not even taking into account the Senate GOP’s differing priorities.”

As intense and arduous as these negotiations seem to be, González reiterated that “what we’re watching play out in committee hearings, in public letters, and before cameras is the kind of deliberation that Congress was designed to do. We’re just not used to that happening out in the open like this.” Let’s not forget, Estes added, the GOP is trying to focus on “so many things.” “Obviously, there [are] lots of dynamics that affect different districts,” just as it affects “different senators in different states.” Add that to a miniscule House majority, and it’s bound to raise some blood pressure.

As the president heads to the House Tuesday to make his case for GOP unity, González underscored, “One thing is clear: Very few, if any, Republicans are willing to be the one who blows up President Trump’s ‘one, big, beautiful bill.’” Say what you will about how it’s coming together, Johnson said, but “The package that we send [to the Senate] will be one that was very carefully negotiated and delicately balanced.”