House Republicans adopted a compromise budget resolution Thursday, allowing them to finally start the legislative process of drafting President Trump’s “big, beautiful” agenda package.
The measure cleared the lower chamber in a 216-214 vote, with just two Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) — opposing it after additional GOP skeptics were assured the final bill would have enough spending cuts for their liking.
Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate will now hash out a final bill that could raise the nation’s debt ceiling by as much as $5 trillion, extend President Trump’s tax cuts, and add hundreds of billions of dollars in defense and border security spending.
The main sticking point for most fiscal hardliners in the House had been the inclusion of mandatory spending cuts, amounting to at least $1.5 trillion, whereas the Senate only budgeted a few billion dollars in reductions.
The measure can pass by a simple majority via a process known as budget reconciliation, which allows only changes in spending, revenue and the US debt limit — not policy shifts.
The last bill passed under reconciliation was former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act that was projected to add up to $1 trillion to the federal deficit over the next 10 years.
“It was a good day in the House; I told you not to doubt us,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters afterwards. “We get the job done, and we’re really grateful to have had the big victory on the floor right now.”
“There’s a lot of work ahead of us and we’re really excited about that,” he added. “We will now get the committees operating on all cylinders … the committees in the Senate and the House will be working in a collaborative fashion.”
Both the House and Senate needed to adopt the budget resolution to unlock the reconciliation process, which will enable Republicans in the upper chamber to bypass a potential Democratic filibuster that would otherwise need 60 votes to overcome.
With Republicans holding 53 Senate seats, reconciliation is critical to get the president’s promised agenda of tax cuts, defense and border security spending, and stepped-up energy exploration through Congress.
Senate Republicans had adopted the compromise budget resolution last week that included two sets of instructions to congressional committees that oversee spending — effectively telling the House and Senate to produce different bills.
One set was modeled after a version that cleared the House in February that called for at least $1.5 trillion in cuts while a second set in the Senate called for a relatively paltry $4 billion of cuts.
Trump and GOP leadership had urged House Republicans to hold their breath and green light the budget resolution so that they could get the ball rolling on drafting the bill and hash out lingering differences later.
Initially, fiscal hawks in the House were apprehensive, forcing Johnson to delay a planned Wednesday afternoon vote on the measure.
Ultimately hardliners came around after GOP leaders assured them that they would get the deeper spending cuts they want, despite fears that the outcome would gut Medicaid.
“I voted to move forward in the reconciliation process, which must result in keeping taxes low for American families, fully funding our border security, and enacting historic spending reductions in return for raising the limit on our nation’s credit card,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who had previously been on the fence.
“To put it simply, the Senate failed to do its job with this budget. President Trump won his election five months ago, and this is the best they could do?” Harris balked.
“But after meeting with President Trump at the White House, I am assured that he will not sign a bill that does not produce the spending reforms necessary to put our country back on the path toward balancing the federal budget,” he said, cautioning that spending cuts must approach $2 trillion in the final bill to win his support.
Trump applauded on Truth Social after the vote: “Congratulations to the House on the passage of a Bill that sets the stage for one of the Greatest and Most Important Signings in the History of our Country.”
There are other big differences in the dual sets of instructions.
The Senate version sets the stage for making the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent and creating enough space to fully realize Trump’s campaign pledge of no tax on tips, Social Security, or overtime pay — as well as increasing the state and local tax deduction (SALT) — at a total estimated cost of $5.3 trillion.
But the House version only calls for a deficit increase of $4.5 trillion for tax cuts, meaning that Trump’s full agenda may not be realized.
Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) told The Post Tuesday that current discussions put the SALT deduction cap at roughly $30,000 per individual filer.
“I think it’s a good number. It’s not enough for some people, but I think $30K is still reasonable,” Van Drew said.
The Senate instructions also provide $350 billion in new funding for border security (aides have told The Post lawmakers only plan to use $175 billion of that).
The House instructions only call for $200 billion.
The upper chamber’s version also increased defense spending by $150 billion, while the House jacked it up by only $100 billion.
On the debt ceiling, which the US is projected to bump up against later this year, the Senate instructions call for a $5 trillion increase in America’s credit limit.
The House instructions only call for a $4 trillion hike.
With Congress set to break later Thursday for a two-week Passover and Easter recess, GOP leaders are still hoping to get a final bill to Trump’s desk by Memorial Day.
