House Pumps Brake On Trump-Backed Budget Deal After Conservative Backlash

House conservatives mobilized Wednesday evening to tank a planned vote on a President Donald Trump-backed budget blueprint laying the groundwork for the president’s first-year legislative agenda, commonly known as his “one big, beautiful bill.”

Speaker Mike Johnson punted on voting for the budget resolution after spending roughly 80 minutes working to persuade holdouts to get onboard. Deficit-focused House conservatives are justifying their opposition to the budget resolution, saying that the Senate-amended blueprint lacks enforceable spending cuts and would increase the deficit.

Johnson said the House could vote on the budget blueprint as early as Thursday morning. Given House Republicans’ 220-213 majority, Johnson can afford to lose just three GOP votes, assuming all members are present and voting.

Failure to pass the budget resolution — the first stage in the budget reconciliation process — before lawmakers leave for a two-week Easter recess will delay both chambers from beginning to negotiate a massive tax and spending bill seeking to fund the president’s border security and tax priorities.

Johnson told reporters earlier on Wednesday that he was confident the House would pass the resolution on the floor Wednesday evening.

“The president’s been willing to help … I think we get this job done,” Johnson told reporters.

Despite House and Senate GOP leadership urging House conservatives to support the budget resolution and find consensus on spending cuts later, House GOP holdouts are concerned that the resolution instructions for the Senate fail to ensure significant spending reduction.

“It was very disappointing to see very, very different instructions to the Senate that I just think are not serious,” Republican Pennsylvania Rep. Lloyd Smucker said on the House floor prior to the vote. “We know the fiscal trajectory that we’re on. If we don’t restrain our runaway spending, I think this is our opportunity to do it. And the $4 billion floor in spending savings in that Senate bill just simply are not acceptable.”

“The Senate sent over a joke, and we’re going to capitulate to the Senate, knowing full well that the Senate instructions carry the day,” Republican Texas Rep. Chip Roy said on the House floor. “We’re going to be sitting there in a reconciliation debate where we’re going to end up on the short end of the stick. But, worse, the American people are going to end of the stick because it absolutely increases deficits. No one can deny it.”

Senate Republicans passed an amended House budget resolution Saturday to allow for a permanent extension of the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts and additional deficit increases to enact the president’s other tax priorities. The Senate-amended budget resolution floated at least $4 billion in spending cuts for the upper chamber while leaving in place House instructions to cut $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion to help offset the cost of the president’s tax priorities.

Despite having yet to find consensus on spending reductions, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said to reporters that Republican leadership in both chambers agree about the need for significant spending cuts in a forthcoming bill.

“The House and Senate Republicans are all on the same page,” Barrasso said Wednesday afternoon. “We’re all committed to serious and significant savings for the American taxpayer.”

Trump, 22 Republican governors, and both Senate and House GOP leadership endorsed the budget blueprint seeking to unlock funding for the president’s legislative priorities.

“This budget resolution is a critical step in advancing President Trump’s priorities through the budget reconciliation process,” the White House said in a statement of administration policy endorsing the budget blueprint Wednesday. “The Administration is committed to working closely with both the House and the Senate to help them pass the budget reconciliation bill the American people were promised.”

“To do so, the Congress must unify and pass this budget resolution immediately,” the White House added. “There is no time for delay.”

An anticipated bill is expected to include up to $175 billion in border security funding, new defense spending, reforms to federal energy policy and an array of the president’s tax priorities.

“We have to have maximum cooperation and support from every Senate Republican, every House Republican,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Tuesday night. “The stakes are too high, and this opportunity isn’t going to come along very often.”

(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)

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