WASHINGTON — The House Budget Committee advanced the framework for President Donald Trump’s massive agenda after a late-night meeting on Sunday night, marking the first step toward enacting the president’s biggest campaign promises.
The panel approved the massive budget resolution in a 17-16 vote, narrowly overcoming the majority threshold needed to bring the legislation to the full House floor for a vote later this week. The vote comes just days after a number of conservative lawmakers tanked the GOP-led resolution over disagreements on some of its contents, prompting party leadership to engage in negotiations throughout the weekend.
It’s not clear what changes have been agreed to in those conversations. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters “minor modifications” were made, but he would not go into detail about what those changes may be.
That prompted a tense exchange between Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and Ranking Member Brendon Boyle, D-Pa., during the hearing on Sunday, with the Democratic leader pressing his colleagues to disclose any changes from the original budget framework. Arrington acknowledged that deliberations would continue throughout the week but said he would not disclose any details.
Each of the five House Republicans who voted against the resolution on Friday — Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., and Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa. — voted to advance the bill when it came up for consideration on Sunday.
Freedom Caucus members Roy, Norman, Clyde, and Brecheen each voted present, indicating their demands have not yet been met but suggesting that talks will continue.
“I’m excited about the changes we’ve made,” Norman said in the hearing. “I will vote present.”
Johnson said the goal is to hold debate on the bill this week, with a final vote as early as Thursday.
“There’s a lot more work to do. We’ve always acknowledged that towards the end, there will be more details to iron out. We have several more to take care of, but I’m looking forward to very thoughtful discussions, very productive discussions over the next few days,” Johnson said. “And I’m absolutely convinced we’re going to get this in final form and pass it in accordance with our original deadline, and that was to do it before Memorial Day.”
The Budget Committee is the last stop before the budget framework can come to the full House floor for a vote. Eleven committees drafted individual portions of the reconciliation bill that the Budget Committee is now tasked with combining into one mega bill.
The budget resolution incorporates Trump’s priorities on energy, border security and national defense while also extending $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that are scheduled to expire by the end of the year.
The House Budget Committee was initially scheduled to advance the framework during its markup hearing on Friday but those plans were delayed after five House Republicans voted against the proposal as they made specific demands to leadership to alter the budget resolution.
The four main holdouts, all members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, began expressing their dissatisfaction with the bill on Thursday, telling reporters they would vote it down in committee until changes were made. However, GOP leaders went ahead with the procedural vote on Friday, noting they wanted to get members on the record.
Medicaid changes coming
One of the most significant changes proposed in the framework is to implement new work requirements for Medicaid beneficiaries. The bill would require able-bodied adults without dependents to work at least 80 hours a month or complete some other activity such as community service.
However, those requirements wouldn’t kick in until 2029 — a stipulation that conservatives say must be moved up or else they won’t support the final package when it comes to the floor. Moving up the timeline has been at the center of discussions with holdouts although it’s not clear what the details look like.
Norman told reporters changes had been made to those work requirement parameters, although did not give specifics.
The Freedom Caucus Board released a statement praising the initial changes that have been made, but noted “it does not yet meet the moment.”
“Thanks to discussions over the weekend, the bill will be closer to the budget resolution framework we agreed upon in the House in April, but it fails to actually honor our promise to significantly correct the spending trajectory of the federal government and lead our nation towards a balanced budget,” the group said in a statement. “We are determined and committed to working through the remaining obstacles within this bill.”
House Republican leaders hope to pass the full framework by the end of next week and hand it off to the Senate to begin its deliberations. However, there are several other factions within the Republican conference that still have disagreements with the bill that GOP leaders must iron out before bringing it to the floor.