WASHINGTON — The House passed a Republican-led budget resolution on Thursday, marking the first step toward drafting a massive reconciliation package to advance President Donald Trump’s tax agenda.
Lawmakers voted 216-214 to advance the budget blueprint, narrowly overcoming the majority threshold needed to pass the chamber. Only two Republicans voted against the measure, including Reps. Thomas Massie and Victoria Spartz.
All four members of Utah’s delegation voted in favor of the resolution.
The bill’s passage comes after days of negotiations between House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and members across his conference to back the measure despite concerns with some of its components. Many of those negotiations dragged on until the last minute, with some hardliners remaining undecided even as they arrived for votes on Thursday morning.
However, enough holdouts flipped their nays to yeas after an 11th-hour agreement with Senate leaders to pursue deeper spending cuts.
“Our first big, beautiful reconciliation package here involves a number of commitments, and one of those is that we are committed to finding at least $1.5 trillion in savings for the American people while also preserving our essential programs,” Johnson announced alongside Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Thursday.
That number emerged as a key sticking point for fiscal hawks in the House, who balked at a provision in the Senate blueprint calling for just $4 billion in spending cuts — far below the $1.5 trillion marker in the original House budget.
To further sweeten the deal, Johnson said the $1.5 trillion deal would act as a minimum target, vowing to “aim much higher and find those savings because we believe they are there.”
Thune reiterated that commitment on Thursday, telling reporters he is “aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined.” When it comes to the $1.5 trillion target, Thune stopped short of explicitly guaranteeing those cuts, but noted there are “a lot of United States senators who believe that is a minimum.”
However, hardline conservatives in the House said they got the assurances in writing to ensure that Senate leaders don’t walk back on the handshake agreement. That written agreement, which Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., showed reporters after the vote, included language to find spending cuts “of at least $2 trillion.”
That letter was drafted by Johnson late Wednesday night to get holdouts on board, lawmakers said.
The agreement is threefold.
First, the White House committed to “significant cuts” specifically related to former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and addressing “waste, fraud, and abuse” with welfare programs such as Medicaid.
Second, Johnson assured hardliners that the aggressive spending cuts in the original House resolution would remain intact for the final budget resolution. Finally, conservatives said Thune firmly committed to the $1.5 trillion number.
“We have now three strong statements from the speaker, the president and the Senate majority leader. We did not have those 48 hours ago,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told reporters after the vote. “We do now. Now that is a step, which is just the beginning.”
The vote marks a major victory for Trump after a monthslong battle between House and Senate Republicans over how to structure the reconciliation package containing the president’s policies on the border, energy and tax reform.
The House was initially scheduled to vote on the package on Wednesday evening, but GOP leaders delayed action after more than a dozen Republicans said they would vote against it. Because of Republicans’ slim majority, Johnson can only afford to lose three party members on any given vote.
GOP leaders met with those holdouts on the House floor during votes on Tuesday, leaving the chamber in a state of paralysis for more than 80 minutes.
Trump played a heavy hand in negotiations, meeting with a number of holdouts at the White House on Tuesday as he urged lawmakers to advance the package and negotiate finer details down the road. The president was also active on social media and posted several missives on Wednesday and Thursday pressing Republicans to get the resolution over the finish line.
Now with the blueprint advanced, House and Senate committees can get to work drafting their portions of the reconciliation package. GOP leaders hope to get those components finalized and passed by Memorial Day, an ambitious timeline that could get delayed if House and Senate Republicans continue to disagree over spending cut totals.