After the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in July, Republicans traveled around the country during their six-week recess to sell voters on the legislation, which Democrats have criticized heavily over its stricter Medicaid requirements. While some members were praised, others faced angry constituents concerned that the bill would harm the vulnerable. 

Republicans have accused Democrats of fearmongering and wanting to keep illegal immigrants on healthcare plans, while simultaneously emphasizing the provisions they expect will resonate with voters, including a new slate of tax carveouts on overtime, tip wages, and Social Security.

However, Republicans believe they still face a major obstacle in the messaging battle: the name of the legislation does not tell a voter what’s in it.

The “one, big beautiful bill” moniker stemmed from Trump’s repeated comment dating back as early as February, when he chided Republicans who wanted to see his agenda passed in two separate bills.

House Republicans are already messaging the law as the “Working Families Tax Cut” or “working families tax cut plan” on social media. GOP members described it similarly as they left the meeting at the Capitol Hill Club on Wednesday morning, and the Washington Examiner confirmed with multiple lawmakers that the officials were pushing the revamped branding during the meeting.

Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD) told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday that while it isn’t ideal to change branding in the middle of an information campaign, he likes the new name for the legislation because it better describes the “biggest win” within the bill.

“I think the new name is a good fit,” Johnson said.

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO), who spearheaded the portion renewing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, told the Washington Examiner he’s “always referred to this as the Working Families Tax Act.”

“If you look back from day one in the Ways and Means Committee, so just following through on what we’ve always pushed, because if you wanted to name the bill the substance of what it does — Working Families Tax Relief Act. It’s much different than the Inflation Reduction Act, which did nothing with inflation,” Smith added.

Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), who chairs the House GOP’s campaign arm, told the Washington Examiner he doesn’t see the renaming as a complete “rebranding” of the legislation.

“Tony Fabrizio presented some polling data and said at the outset that we need to start calling it the ‘Working Families Tax Cut,’ because there’s so many lies and misinformation out there, that we need to change our tactic,” Hudson said.

Johnson also pointed out that Democrats have worked hard to message against the bill. In the lead-up to its passage and since then, Democrats have framed it as a giveaway to the rich by pointing to analyses that show it disproportionately helps the wealthy, and in polling, the law remains underwater with voters.

“So many of the individual components of the Working Families Tax Cut Act are popular, and so it’s a little odd that the package itself is not as popular as the individual components,” Johnson added.

Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA) told the Washington Examiner that the legislation is a culmination of Trump’s campaign promises.

“As Republicans, we eliminated taxes on tips and overtime, created a new $6,000 deduction for seniors, invested in domestic manufacturing, and lowered taxes for our small businesses,” Feenstra said. “The Working Families Tax Cuts also included my work to deliver additional relief from the death tax, keeping Iowa farmland in the hands of Iowa farmers — not China.”

“This law delivers the largest tax cuts in history and is truly jet fuel for our economy,” he added.

Many Republican lawmakers said that in Wednesday’s meeting, the White House encouraged them to focus on no taxes on tips and overtime, and extending the child tax credit. Hudson said that the economy was the “top category” that lawmakers learned was polling well with voters. 

Last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee itself issued a memo, obtained by the Washington Examiner, that encouraged Republicans to focus their messaging on the “largest middle-class tax cut in generations” as the “centerpiece achievement.” The campaign arm also noted that the GOP should frame “every Democrat as voting to raise taxes and hike costs on working families,” instructing members to “keep message discipline.” 

The messaging battle harkens back to similar troubles during Trump’s first term. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, legislation that permanently lowered the corporate tax rate and slashed individual rates, benefited most taxpayers. In fact, the Tax Policy Center, a left-leaning organization, estimated that two-thirds got a tax cut from the bill.

But despite that, Republicans had trouble touting the bill and attracting popular support.

Polling giant Gallup found in 2019 that only 40% said they approved the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, while 49% said they disapproved. Other surveys from around that time painted a similar picture, and now Republicans hope to avoid repeating that rollout.

Trump acknowledged the difficulties Republicans have encountered when pitching the One Big Beautiful Bill to the public.

The president told his Cabinet last week during a meeting at the White House that he would no longer “use” that description amid the poor polling.

“I’m not going to use the term ‘great, big, beautiful.’ That was good for getting it approved. But it’s not good for explaining to people what it’s all about. It’s a massive tax cut for the middle class. It’s a massive tax cut for jobs,” Trump told his secretaries and Cabinet-level administration officials.

After Wednesday’s meeting, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Washington Examiner in a statement that the Trump administration will “continue highlighting the massive tax cuts President Trump delivered to working Americans … along with many other wins for the American people.”

Democrats are already taking advantage of the rebranding, blasting Republicans for changing the name only two months after the OBBB became law.

“I think the bill is so unpopular it won’t matter what they call it,” one House Democrat said bluntly.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the NRCC’s counterpart, issued a statement shortly after the GOP meeting, accusing Republicans of rebranding to distract from the legislation’s perceived unpopularity.

“The so-called rebrand of the Big, Ugly Law is an admission that the GOP’s signature legislative ‘achievement’ is a toxic failure,” said Justin Chermol, DCCC spokesman. “Only Republicans seem surprised that ripping away healthcare and gutting rural hospitals just to hand billionaires a massive tax break is completely out of step with what the American people want.”

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Johnson acknowledged that Republicans need to up their game when it comes to the messaging, but said that he thinks lawmakers have done a better job doing so in August than they did in July.

“I think talking every single day to affected Americans has helped us hone our message and do a better job of explaining with some clarity what the bill actually does,” he said.

Naomi Lim contributed to this report.