Republicans in the House of Representatives are split over how to proceed with a significant piece of legislation aimed at advancing the policy agenda of President Donald Trump, as a potential vote on the measure is set for Wednesday afternoon.
Fiscal conservatives are pushing back against GOP leadership’s plan to pass the Senate’s version of a broad framework that lays the foundation for a major policy overhaul in areas like border security, energy, defense, and taxes.
The main point of contention is the discrepancy between the Senate and House proposals for required spending cuts. Conservatives argue that these cuts are necessary to offset the cost of new policies and help reduce the national deficit. While the Senate’s plan proposes a minimum of $4 billion in cuts, the House’s proposal calls for cuts amounting to $1.5 trillion.
“The issue is that many don’t trust the Senate and their intentions, fearing they’ll mislead the president and prevent us from achieving what we need,” said Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., on Tuesday. “I’m a ‘no’ until we can secure enough votes to pass it.” McCormick added that as many as 40 GOP lawmakers are still undecided or opposed to the measure.
A White House meeting with a select group of holdout lawmakers on Tuesday made some progress, but many conservatives remained unconvinced.
“I wouldn’t bring it to the floor,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, after the meeting. “This budget, in my view, will increase the deficit, and I didn’t come here to do that.”
Senate GOP leaders have hailed the bill as a significant win for Trump’s agenda after its passage in the Senate early Saturday morning. Trump also encouraged all House Republicans to support the bill in a post on his social media platform on Monday night.
House Republican leaders, such as Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., have attempted to reassure conservatives by emphasizing that passing the Senate version would not hinder the House’s ability to move forward with its own proposals for deeper cuts. Republicans are working on a comprehensive piece of legislation that Trump has called “one big, beautiful bill” to push forward his policies on border security, defense, energy, and taxes.
This major legislation can only proceed through the budget reconciliation process, a method that allows certain fiscal measures to pass in the Senate with a simple majority vote, rather than the usual 60 votes. Reconciliation is typically used when one party controls both chambers of Congress and the presidency, enabling large policy changes through a few pieces of legislation.
Passing a framework in both the House and Senate, which mainly consists of numbers indicating funding increases or decreases, allows each chamber’s committees to craft specific policy under their jurisdiction. Some members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have urged Speaker Johnson to allow the House GOP to begin drafting their own bill without first passing the Senate version, though both chambers will need to eventually agree on identical bills to send to Trump.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., criticized the Senate’s proposed $4 billion in cuts, calling it “anemic” and “really a joke.” He emphasized that significant spending reductions are necessary to meet Trump’s goals of reducing interest rates and lowering the deficit. “There’s no way this legislation will pass the House this week,” he said.
The measure is expected to go through the House Rules Committee, which serves as the final step before most legislation can be voted on by the full chamber. However, plans for a late-afternoon Rules Committee meeting on the framework, which would have set up a Wednesday vote, were scrapped by Tuesday evening.
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