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CNN
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House Republicans remain in a dramatic overnight stalemate as President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson attempt to cajole nearly a dozen holdouts to support the effort to move forward on the president’s sweeping domestic policy agenda bill.

Johnson has said he plans to keep a key vote to advance the bill open “as long as it takes.” Johnson and his leadership team are whipping members to back the procedural vote in a furious last-minute scramble.

If GOP leadership succeeds, the House would move onto final passage as quickly as possible, following debate on the bill. If the vote fails, however, it would deal a major setback to Republicans, and GOP leaders would need to go back to the drawing board to find a way forward.

A number of House Republicans are — for now — standing in the way of delivering Trump the first major legislative victory of his second term.

For weeks, Trump and his team have promised Hill Republican leaders that he would deliver the headstrong GOP hardliners who are still vowing to defy the president on his agenda, according to three people familiar with the discussions.

Now, it’s all coming down to the wire. Trump and his team have spent much of the day in talks with the GOP holdouts on the bill, including summoning groups of Republicans for meetings at the White House to air their grievances with the Senate-passed version of the package. And Johnson is again facing a test of his powers in the narrowly divided House, as he seeks to steer his fractious conference to swallow a vote that many of them dislike.

In a meeting with centrist-leaning Republicans, Trump’s tone was “cordial,” one GOP member in the room said. The White House brought in Dr. Mehmet Oz – who leads the agency in charge of Medicaid – to help educate members on related provisions in the Senate GOP bill, such as provider taxes and a bolstered fund for rural hospitals, and the potential impacts to hospitals in their districts, according to another person familiar with the discussions. Trump and Vice President JD Vance were both in attendance, helping to convince members to back the bill, those two people said.

“Those meetings are having a big impact, members are moving to yes,” Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota told reporters after returning from the White House meeting with Oz, Trump and Vance.

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise nodded to the importance of Trump’s involvement in the discussions earlier Wednesday, telling reporters at the US Capitol, “The president from day one has been our best closer, and he’s going to continue to be through today.”

Both Johnson and Trump have been adamant that the bill land on Trump’s desk in time for him to sign it on the Fourth of July, leaving almost no time for more talks. They also have almost no room for error: House Republicans can only afford to lose three votes if they have full attendance.

It all amounts to a pivotal week that could define Trump’ second term: So far, the push to pass his agenda in Congress has been marred by weeks of tense GOP infighting that has even some Republicans worried about how the bill could play in the 2026 midterms.

Yet if it passes next out of the House, Trump and his Hill allies believe it will help cement his legacy on issues like border security and tax policy – including fulfilling his campaign promises of no taxes on tips or overtime pay – while attempting to rein in federal spending by instituting work requirements for able-bodied adults for Medicaid and SNAP.

Meetings were ongoing at the White House as of midday Wednesday, but key conservatives were still insisting they want to change the Senate bill — a promise that Trump and Johnson aren’t willing to make.

“It’s not ‘take it or leave it.’ I don’t need take it or leave it legislating. How about we send it back to him. We say, ‘Take it or leave it,’ all right? So the Senate doesn’t get to be the final say on everything,” Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, one of the most vocal critics of Trump’s bill, said before he left for the White House on Wednesday. “We need more spending restraint.”

Roy is a leading member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, which outlined their opposition to the Senate’s version of Trump’s domestic policy bill in a new memo obtained by CNN.

The right-wing group of Republicans pointed to more than a dozen problems they have with the current bill, including what they described as watered-down energy tax credit measures, an increase to the deficit and various Medicaid provisions that differ from the House-passed version of the bill.

And in another troubling sign for the White House, the Freedom Caucus’ chairman, Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, told reporters he declined to attend the meeting with Trump. “I’m still voting no on the rule. We have to get this thing right,” Harris said.

Another possible “no” vote, Rep. Keith Self of Texas, said he was not invited to the White House.

The Senate’s Tuesday passage of the bill had been a hard-fought victory for Trump, who spent days wrangling fellow Republicans behind the multi-trillion-dollar bill, which includes tax cuts and funding boosts for the Pentagon and border security. It also includes more contentious spending cuts to pay for the rest of the bill, including the biggest downsizing of the federal safety net in decades.

Across the Capitol, House GOP leaders are confident the latest version can pass the House, according to multiple sources. But it will likely take significant political muscle, as Johnson grapples with his own high-stakes battle between centrists and right-wing hardliners.

The legislative brawl inside the US Capitol has also included some dramatic moments – including over the weekend when a key Republican, Sen. Thom Tillis, stunned Washington by announcing he would not seek reelection after defying Trump and voting to block his bill on the floor. (Within a day of Trump threatening to primary him, Tillis exited the race altogether.)

Those high-stakes moments will likely continue on Capitol Hill. Before the bill can come to a final passage vote in the House, the chamber must first take a key procedural vote known as a vote on the rule – and some conservative are threatening to rebel against it, creating a new headache for the speaker. (That vote was already delayed by several hours Wednesday.)

The bill did clear one early hurdle in the House: The House Rules Committee voted to advance the rule on Trump’s agenda bill in the early hours of Wednesday morning after the panel met for almost 12 hours. GOP Reps. Ralph Norman and Chip Roy, two conservatives who have harshly criticized the Senate’s version of the package, joined Democrats on the panel to oppose advancing the rule.

Some Republicans, including Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, still insist July 4 was an “arbitrary” deadline.

Massie, who has consistently voted against the bill over his deficit concerns and has faced the ire of Trump, said he intends to stand firm against the bill.

Asked if there was anything at all leadership could do to win his vote, he said, “We could go back to the drawing board.” Asked about the self-imposed deadline, he added: “There’s no reason to bankrupt the country because you want to go shoot off some fireworks.”

This headline and story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Sarah Owermohle, Lauren Fox, Arlette Saenz, David Wright, Aileen Graef, Kevin Liptak and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.

DHARAMSHALA, India (AP) — The Dalai Lama has announced that he intends to reincarnate, paving the way for a successor to take on a mantle stretching back 500 years after his death.

But as he approaches his 90th birthday, that news hasn’t eased the worries of Tibetan Buddhists who wonder: What will happen when this Dalai Lama is gone?

For decades, the 14th Dalai Lama has been more than a spiritual leader. He has sustained a nation in exile and managed to build a community that’s kept the Tibetan culture and identity alive. He is the China -reviled spokesperson for a Tibetan homeland that many, like him, can see only from afar. He has received a Nobel Peace Prize and been courted by royalty, politicians and Hollywood stars, helping him draw global attention and support for Tibet.

When his death comes, it will pitch the global Tibetan community into uncertainty, perhaps for years. His successor will have to be found through the traditional process of reincarnation. China, whose troops took control of Tibet in 1950, says it will reject anyone chosen without Beijing’s consent.

Tibetans in India’s Himalayan town of Dharamshala, the Dalai Lama’s home in exile, and scattered around the world fear a new onslaught on their cultural and religious identity.

“The absence of His Holiness would be a huge setback for the Tibetans,” said Penpa Tsering, the head of the democratically elected Tibetan government-in-exile. “The responsibility lies on us as to how we carry forward the legacy of His Holiness.”

A long gap

The Dalai Lama has become one of the world’s most recognizable figures while leading a Tibetan diaspora through their struggle for autonomy and opposition of China’s control of Tibet. He has not named a successor, but he says they will be born in the “free world” — outside China.

Previous Dalai Lamas have been identified by senior monastic disciples, under strict religious rituals meant to identify their predecessor’s reincarnation. Monks interpret signs, consult oracles and send search committees to Tibetan households looking for a child who exhibits the qualities of the Dalai Lama.

All of this takes years of effort, leaving a leadership vacuum. Years of religious education and training are needed before the identified successor grows up and takes up full responsibilities as spiritual leader.

China has already sought to elevate other spiritual figures, particularly Tibetan Buddhism’s No. 2 figure, the Panchen Lama, whose legitimacy is highly contested by many Tibetans at home and in exile.

Gyaltsen Norbu was installed by Beijing as the 11th Panchen Lama in 1995 after followers of the Dalai Lama recognized a different boy as the Panchen’s incarnation. That boy disappeared soon after.

Joy and stubbornness

And there’s no guarantee the successor will have the current Dalai Lama’s charisma, or his ability to balance a sense of joy with the stubbornness needed to counter China.

“He is a fulcrum, he’s the epitome of the Tibetan movement,” said writer and activist Tenzin Tsundue, who was born in India.

Tsundue for years has advocated for Tibet’s autonomy. To him, the current Dalai Lama’s absence will be hugely felt.

Like many other Tibetans, however, his hopes are pinned on the government in exile. “How is home not anything but a genuine human demand?” he added.

Such concerns are most prevalent in Dharamshala, where a Tibetan community of over 20,000 administers its own schools, hospitals and monasteries and elects its own lawmakers and president. The Dalai Lama handed over his political powers to a democratically elected government in 2011.

Beijing is likely to appoint its own candidate

China doesn’t recognize the Tibetan government-in-exile and brands the Dalai Lama a dangerous separatist. It has shunned direct contact with his representatives for more than a decade.

It has insisted that the Dalai Lama’s successor will be from inside China and must be approved by its government.

Tibetans in exile have long been wary of the officially atheist Chinese government’s attempts to meddle with the Tibetan Buddhism reincarnation system. They see it as part of Beijing’s plan to tighten its control over Tibet.

“If they do it, they are actually making a mockery of themselves among the free countries,” said Geshe Lhakdor, a Tibetan Buddhist scholar, calling Beijing’s stance “hypocrisy.”

Tibetans say they were effectively independent for centuries and accuse China of trying to wipe out Tibet’s Buddhist culture and language. Many of the more than 7 million Tibetans living under Chinese rule accuse Beijing of stifling religious freedoms, changing its ethnic makeup by moving millions of Han Chinese into the region and torturing political prisoners.

The Chinese government denies these allegations.

Waning global attention

For years, governments across the world have feted the Dalai Lama for advocating for Tibetan rights and spreading a message of nonviolence. They have also helped him raise tens of millions of dollars to build Tibetan cultural and religious institutions.

But Tsundue said that global powers have become more unreliable in their support of the Tibetan cause as China’s influence grows.

“Everybody has benefited at our cost because they have been trading with China,” Tsundue said. “We are, in a way, a victim of geopolitics.”

Some countries, including the United States, view Beijing’s attempts to control the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama as a violation of religious freedom and Tibetan cultural tradition. Others, like the European Union and India, have maintained a cautious stance to avoid friction with China.

Tsering, the president of the government-in-exile, acknowledged this, calling Tibetans’ efforts to keep the issue of Tibet alive “a miracle.”

He also cautioned that the future depends on the Tibetan people at large.

Under the Dalai Lama’s “Middle Way” policy, the movement for Tibet’s autonomy has largely been nonviolent. It espouses autonomy under Chinese sovereignty.

The newly announced succession plan, however, can prompt a reckoning of that policy, and it is unclear how the Dalai Lama’s successor might approach dialogue with Beijing.

Tsering cautioned that much could change in the coming years. His biggest worry is that the Dalai Lama’s death in exile could trigger a violent response inside Tibet, where in recent years hundreds of monks and others reportedly set themselves on fire in protest against Chinese rule.

“I hope the Tibetans won’t get radicalized,” he said.