WASHINGTON — The House Budget Committee advanced its proposal for a massive reconciliation bill on Thursday night, teeing the resolution up for a vote on the House floor later this month after GOP leadership struck a last-minute deal to secure support from some key holdouts.
The resolution, unveiled on Wednesday, would allocate trillions of dollars to extend the tax cuts passed in President Donald Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act — a proposal approved by most in the GOP conference but met with skepticism by some fiscal hawks. However, a key amendment was passed on Thursday to secure support from those hardliners by guaranteeing cuts elsewhere in the federal government.
Under the original resolution, the House Ways and Means Committee would be given $4.5 trillion to extend Trump’s tax cuts before they expire at the end of the year. Details on how that money would be allocated is not yet clear and does not need to be decided until committees begin drafting the bill.
In exchange, committees will be tasked with finding at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade, with a target set for $2 trillion.
But under the managers amendment passed on Thursday, Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, would have the power to “adjust the dials” on tax cuts depending on how much government spending is slashed.
For example, if committees are able to surpass the $2 trillion target and find $2.5 trillion in spending cuts, the amendment would increase the amount of money allocated to the Ways and Means Committee to extend the tax cuts. That’s a crucial agreement as hardliners have pushed for deeper spending cuts while those on the Ways and Means Committee have warned they’d need more than $4.5 trillion to extend the tax cuts.
The amendment passed the committee in a 21-16 vote after an hourslong meeting on Thursday. All Republicans voted in agreement. No Democrat approved the proposal.
The resolution also advanced out of the committee in a 21-16 vote.
With the amendment passage, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., said the conservative caucus would back the budget resolution when it’s brought to the floor later this month for a vote before the full House.
That could be enough to guarantee passage and it appeases those who have since threatened not to support the package. With only a one-vote majority in the House at the moment, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., can afford virtually no room for error.
“This is it. We declare victory,” Harris said, according to the Hill. I mean, we have a bill that we believe … had to be done rapidly to get the president the border funding as soon as possible. We believe it had that meaningful deficit reduction, and we believe it had to be able to advance the president’s tax policy. It all happens here.”
The House is in recess until Feb. 24, after which the chamber will bring the resolution to the floor for a vote.
Senate advances border bill
Meanwhile, the Senate Budget Committee advanced its own budget resolution on Wednesday that would focus solely on the southern border and national defense — leaving the more complex tax policies for later. It’s not clear when that could be brought to the Senate floor for consideration, but the upper chamber is not scheduled to recess and could bring it up sometime next week.
Even if the Senate manages to get its budget resolution passed before the House, it’s unlikely House GOP leaders will feel pressured to take it up.
“I’m afraid it’s a nonstarter over here,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “We all are trying to get to the same achievable objectives, and there’s just, you know, different ideas on how to get there.”