House GOP approves budget framework, setting the stage for Trump's ‘big, beautiful bill’
Republicans must unite on the core components of their proposals, including tax cuts, energy policy, investments in border security, and increased military spending.
TroibNews 
The House passed a budget on Thursday, allowing Republicans to pursue President Donald Trump’s ambitious bill along party lines this year without the filibuster constraints.
The final tally for the vote was 216-214, with Reps. Victoria Spartz of Indiana and Thomas Massie of Kentucky aligning with all Democrats in voting “no.”
Now, Republican lawmakers in both chambers can commence the challenging task of drafting and rallying support for a massive package that includes tax cuts, military spending, energy policy, and investments in border security. This endeavor is expected to create friction between fiscal conservatives and moderates within the party, as GOP leaders attempt to reconcile their differing priorities, namely protecting safety-net programs like Medicaid while making significant cuts to federal spending.
“Republican unity, huh? Can’t be done," quipped hard-liner Rep. Scott Perry after the vote.
In a notable victory for Trump and Congressional leaders, several Republican holdouts ultimately decided to support the Senate-adopted budget blueprint after Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune publicly committed to seeking at least $1.5 trillion in spending reductions from safety-net programs in the final proposal.
Johnson assured fiscal conservatives in a meeting Wednesday night that House committee chairs would draft their sections of the bill according to the House's stricter standards for decreasing the federal deficit, rather than the Senate's more lenient requirements. He stated they could remove him from the speakership if the final package fails to meet the House's expectations, which includes $1.5 trillion in cuts, according to three individuals familiar with the discussion.
Massie used a "Jack and the Beanstalk" analogy to express skepticism about the likelihood of the proposed spending cuts coming to fruition. “I knew all along they would trade the cow for magic beans,” the Kentucky Republican remarked about his colleagues after the vote. “These beans are like the rest. They don't sprout.”
Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise held a private meeting with fiscal hawks past 10 p.m. Wednesday, after canceling an earlier vote on the budget framework that same evening. Prior to that, House hard-liners had discussions with Thune regarding the need for more substantial spending cuts.
“I think at some point these guys just have to take yes for an answer,” said Thune.
Passing the same budget in both the House and Senate is just the preliminary step in the challenging process of moving Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” toward enactment. It was an arduous task requiring Republicans in both chambers to vote twice on the budget framework over seven weeks to reach a consensus that could satisfy lawmakers from both sides of the Capitol.
This budget framework provides Republicans with considerable flexibility in determining the contents of the final package, which House GOP leaders intend to finalize by late May. In addition to tax and spending cuts, they have the capacity to increase military spending by $150 billion and allocate another $175 billion for border security and immigration enforcement.
"We will now get the committees operating on all cylinders," Johnson informed reporters after the vote.
Although lawmakers are preparing to leave for a two-week recess, the speaker indicated that committee chairs would continue to draft their sections of the bill during the break, allowing only a couple of days off for Easter celebrations.
Until now, Republican leaders in the House and Senate have operated with an “us-against-them” mentality, as Senate GOP leaders favored breaking the agenda into two separate measures while top House Republicans preferred the single-bill approach endorsed by Trump. Johnson indicated that this perspective is shifting.
"This really is a one-team approach by Republicans in both chambers," Johnson said.
While there are methods for Republicans to avoid some of their own mandates for reducing the deficit in the final bill, Senate Republicans are demanding a total of at least $4 billion in savings over a decade from new policies devised by committees overseeing agriculture, nutrition, housing, energy, health, education, and labor policy.
If Republicans do not surpass those Senate minimums for deficit reduction, House fiscal conservatives are poised to push back.
"We made it pretty clear that if any of this varies — if we don't pay for what we spend, no more deficits — then we can go right back. And we will. And they know that," Rep. Ralph Norman told reporters following the vote.
Given that Senate Republicans plan to utilize a little-used approach to calculate the cost of their tax policies, GOP leaders aim to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts while also implementing up to $1.5 trillion in new tax breaks, claiming they are only increasing the federal deficit by that $1.5 trillion amount. For their new tax incentives, Republican leaders are considering some of Trump’s proposals, including eliminating taxes on tips and reinstating vital tax breaks for businesses, along with expanding the Child Tax Credit.
Democrats are eager to sharpen their criticisms of the GOP as the bill takes shape, seizing on a recent estimate released by Congress's nonpartisan budget office.
The new Congressional Budget Office analysis projects that the GOP’s tax plans would raise the federal deficit by $6 trillion over the next decade. This figure includes the extension of the 2017 tax cuts and the $1.5 trillion in new tax benefits sought by Republicans. Over a period of 30 years, these tax cuts are expected to contribute an additional $52 trillion to a national debt that already exceeds $36 trillion.
“If they need to rack up a trillion-dollar bill on the middle-class credit card in order to finance tax cuts for their wealthy friends, they are willing to do it every single time,” Sen. Chris Murphy remarked in an interview. “They're willing to break the Senate, if that's what's necessary, to give away tax breaks to corporations and wealthy people.”
Republicans must also confront how to satisfy the House requirement of reducing the deficit by $880 billion through policies developed by the Energy and Commerce Committee, with a particular focus on Medicaid. Moderates are apprehensive about changes that could lead to cuts in benefits, while conservative hardliners advocate for significant reductions to the program.
Divisions may also arise over the elimination of green energy tax credits from the highly criticized 2022 climate legislation implemented under the Biden administration. Some party members in both chambers are pushing to maintain a variety of these credits that benefit red districts and states.
While there is widespread Republican support for extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts, various tax-related issues may create splits among lawmakers, including caps on state and local tax deductions and the expansion of the Child Tax Credit.
James del Carmen for TROIB News
The final tally for the vote was 216-214, with Reps. Victoria Spartz of Indiana and Thomas Massie of Kentucky aligning with all Democrats in voting “no.”
Now, Republican lawmakers in both chambers can commence the challenging task of drafting and rallying support for a massive package that includes tax cuts, military spending, energy policy, and investments in border security. This endeavor is expected to create friction between fiscal conservatives and moderates within the party, as GOP leaders attempt to reconcile their differing priorities, namely protecting safety-net programs like Medicaid while making significant cuts to federal spending.
“Republican unity, huh? Can’t be done," quipped hard-liner Rep. Scott Perry after the vote.
In a notable victory for Trump and Congressional leaders, several Republican holdouts ultimately decided to support the Senate-adopted budget blueprint after Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune publicly committed to seeking at least $1.5 trillion in spending reductions from safety-net programs in the final proposal.
Johnson assured fiscal conservatives in a meeting Wednesday night that House committee chairs would draft their sections of the bill according to the House's stricter standards for decreasing the federal deficit, rather than the Senate's more lenient requirements. He stated they could remove him from the speakership if the final package fails to meet the House's expectations, which includes $1.5 trillion in cuts, according to three individuals familiar with the discussion.
Massie used a "Jack and the Beanstalk" analogy to express skepticism about the likelihood of the proposed spending cuts coming to fruition. “I knew all along they would trade the cow for magic beans,” the Kentucky Republican remarked about his colleagues after the vote. “These beans are like the rest. They don't sprout.”
Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise held a private meeting with fiscal hawks past 10 p.m. Wednesday, after canceling an earlier vote on the budget framework that same evening. Prior to that, House hard-liners had discussions with Thune regarding the need for more substantial spending cuts.
“I think at some point these guys just have to take yes for an answer,” said Thune.
Passing the same budget in both the House and Senate is just the preliminary step in the challenging process of moving Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” toward enactment. It was an arduous task requiring Republicans in both chambers to vote twice on the budget framework over seven weeks to reach a consensus that could satisfy lawmakers from both sides of the Capitol.
This budget framework provides Republicans with considerable flexibility in determining the contents of the final package, which House GOP leaders intend to finalize by late May. In addition to tax and spending cuts, they have the capacity to increase military spending by $150 billion and allocate another $175 billion for border security and immigration enforcement.
"We will now get the committees operating on all cylinders," Johnson informed reporters after the vote.
Although lawmakers are preparing to leave for a two-week recess, the speaker indicated that committee chairs would continue to draft their sections of the bill during the break, allowing only a couple of days off for Easter celebrations.
Until now, Republican leaders in the House and Senate have operated with an “us-against-them” mentality, as Senate GOP leaders favored breaking the agenda into two separate measures while top House Republicans preferred the single-bill approach endorsed by Trump. Johnson indicated that this perspective is shifting.
"This really is a one-team approach by Republicans in both chambers," Johnson said.
While there are methods for Republicans to avoid some of their own mandates for reducing the deficit in the final bill, Senate Republicans are demanding a total of at least $4 billion in savings over a decade from new policies devised by committees overseeing agriculture, nutrition, housing, energy, health, education, and labor policy.
If Republicans do not surpass those Senate minimums for deficit reduction, House fiscal conservatives are poised to push back.
"We made it pretty clear that if any of this varies — if we don't pay for what we spend, no more deficits — then we can go right back. And we will. And they know that," Rep. Ralph Norman told reporters following the vote.
Given that Senate Republicans plan to utilize a little-used approach to calculate the cost of their tax policies, GOP leaders aim to extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts while also implementing up to $1.5 trillion in new tax breaks, claiming they are only increasing the federal deficit by that $1.5 trillion amount. For their new tax incentives, Republican leaders are considering some of Trump’s proposals, including eliminating taxes on tips and reinstating vital tax breaks for businesses, along with expanding the Child Tax Credit.
Democrats are eager to sharpen their criticisms of the GOP as the bill takes shape, seizing on a recent estimate released by Congress's nonpartisan budget office.
The new Congressional Budget Office analysis projects that the GOP’s tax plans would raise the federal deficit by $6 trillion over the next decade. This figure includes the extension of the 2017 tax cuts and the $1.5 trillion in new tax benefits sought by Republicans. Over a period of 30 years, these tax cuts are expected to contribute an additional $52 trillion to a national debt that already exceeds $36 trillion.
“If they need to rack up a trillion-dollar bill on the middle-class credit card in order to finance tax cuts for their wealthy friends, they are willing to do it every single time,” Sen. Chris Murphy remarked in an interview. “They're willing to break the Senate, if that's what's necessary, to give away tax breaks to corporations and wealthy people.”
Republicans must also confront how to satisfy the House requirement of reducing the deficit by $880 billion through policies developed by the Energy and Commerce Committee, with a particular focus on Medicaid. Moderates are apprehensive about changes that could lead to cuts in benefits, while conservative hardliners advocate for significant reductions to the program.
Divisions may also arise over the elimination of green energy tax credits from the highly criticized 2022 climate legislation implemented under the Biden administration. Some party members in both chambers are pushing to maintain a variety of these credits that benefit red districts and states.
While there is widespread Republican support for extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts, various tax-related issues may create splits among lawmakers, including caps on state and local tax deductions and the expansion of the Child Tax Credit.
James del Carmen for TROIB News
Find more stories on Business, Economy and Finance in TROIB business
