House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pulled a vote late on April 9 on the Senate’s compromise budget resolution that would have allowed Congress to move forward with President Donald Trump’s agenda.
The decision to pull the vote—after a previous vote was held open for an hour and 15 minutes—was made as several Republicans remained opposed to various aspects of the package.
Johnson confirmed in comments to The Epoch Times that there would be no other votes Wednesday night and that a vote on the budget resolution will be held on Thursday.
It’s a major setback for both Johnson and the president, who threw his backing behind the package on April 8.
“Close your eyes and get there. It’s a phenomenal bill. Stop grandstanding,” Trump said on April 8 at a fundraiser dinner for the House GOP’s campaign and finance arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee.
That endorsement appears not to have soothed GOP skeptics of the package, despite Trump’s assurances to conservatives that they would get the steep spending cuts they’re seeking.
The withdrawal of the resolution suggests that leadership expected the legislation to fail if brought for a vote.
Now, they’ll have to go back to the negotiating table to try to win enough support for the package, in spite of Trump’s efforts during meetings with holdouts to bring the House Republican conference in alignment behind the package.
Earlier the same day, the resolution was advanced by the House Rules Committee in a 9–3 vote that won the backing of even skeptics including Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas), both of whom sit on the panel.
Just a day earlier, Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) told reporters that there were as many as 40 critics who hadn’t made a final decision on how to vote.
The measure, unveiled by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on April 2, largely reflects both the House’s and Senate’s previously passed versions. It provides Congress with a floor and ceiling for spending and cutting targets without having to come to a consensus.
Numerous issues within the package—including the extent of deficit cuts and Medicaid cuts, and raising the debt ceiling by as much as $5 trillion—have divided the caucus.
A budget resolution is required to unlock the reconciliation process, which allows legislation related to taxation, spending, and the national debt to pass the Senate with a simple majority and avoid the 60-vote filibuster threshold applied to most bills.
To formally begin the process, an identical budget blueprint resolution must pass both chambers of Congress. It is not subject to the president’s signature or veto, though the final reconciliation bill will be.
The compromise budget resolution instructs the House and Senate to allocate $100 billion and $150 billion, respectively, toward defense over a decade. It would also make the 2017 tax cuts permanent. It also includes measures related to border security and American energy.
The resolution would have the Senate raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion. This is an issue for members of the House Freedom Caucus such as Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.). The national borrowing limit is scheduled to be reached within the next few months.
Johnson can only afford to lose three GOP votes if all Democrats are in attendance and vote against the resolution.
Trump has repeatedly called on House Republicans to pass the measure.
“If we don’t get it done because of stupidity or a couple of people who want to show how great they are, you just have to laugh at them or smile at them or cry right in their face,” he said.
—Joseph Lord
EPOCH INTERVIEWS IN EL SALVADOR
PLAYA TUNCO, El Salvador—Patricia Sandoval wept at a restaurant overlooking the gray sea of her native El Salvador.
Until just weeks ago, it had been 42 years since she had set foot in her homeland, after having fled to the United States with her mother and siblings to build a safe, new life.
“I left—now I come back—and I don’t know the country. I don’t know my land,” she said, her voice breaking.
The Epoch Times traveled more than 175 miles through the country, speaking to a dozen people about the transformation their nation has experienced under President Nayib Bukele and how they felt about the U.S. deportations to their country.
Bukele touts that his efforts to eradicate the threat of gangs like MS-13 and Barrio 18, and the construction of El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in Tecoluca, have made the country safe again.
“Some people say that we are the country that has imprisoned thousands, but actually, we’ve freed millions,“ Bukele said. “Thousands of Salvadorans fled war and poverty. We’ve now made this a country to return to. Over the past five years, El Salvador has been born again.”
El Salvador is now playing an important role in U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to deport criminal illegal immigrants.
Last month, the Trump administration deported 238 alleged Tren de Aragua gang members and 21 MS-13 gang members to CECOT.
The deportation was documented by a video showing the prisoners being led off planes by the military, loaded on to buses and military-style vehicles, and whisked away to the prison.
Bukele agreed to house the foreign nationals for a year in CECOT for $6 million.
U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg ordered the two planes carrying the alleged illegal immigrant gang members to El Salvador and Honduras to return to the United States.
Boasberg verbally ordered that the planes be turned around, but he did not include the directive in his written order.
The case is ongoing as the Trump administration and the judge continue to spar over deportations of alleged gang members who are in the United States illegally after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act. This allowed the U.S. government to fast-track the removal of illegal immigrants deemed to be participating in an invasion of the country.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visited the prison complex on March 26, warning gang members they would end up in a mega-prison if they attempted to come to America.
Every person interviewed by The Epoch Times told stories of violence and crime they experienced before Bukele was elected, most at the hands of gangs.
Speaking through an interpreter at Plaza Gerardo Barrios, 61-year-old Enrique Orellana, a farmworker from Teotepeque wearing a USA shirt, told The Epoch Times that Noem’s visit was a moment of national pride, showing the world that El Salvador is no longer run by gangs.
“Where it used to be No. 1 in crime, now it’s No. 1 in security,“ he said. “Trump and Bukele are working hand in hand.”
But not everyone agreed.
At the marketplace not far from the plaza, 76-year-old Abel told The Epoch Times via an interpreter that the United States should handle its own problems.
“This country has no legal right to accept them,“ he said of Trump’s deportations. “Trump should put them in jail over there.”
Likewise, his friend Vanessa, 30, said she doesn’t think it’s right for America to send Tren de Aragua gang members from Venezuela to her country. The United States should have all the resources it needs to house prisoners, she said.
Both said that some people doubt that everyone at CECOT is a gang member.
Salvadoran political analyst Herbert Esmahan said El Salvador’s transformation into what has been called one of the safest countries in the Western Hemisphere is the key to curtailing illegal immigration to the United States.
Cleaning up El Salvador’s gang problem will mean that more businesses will open, more tourists will show up, and more jobs will be created, he said.
Esmahan said that in El Salvador, the government investigated suspected gang members before putting them in CECOT. Those with gang tattoos and proven affiliations went through a legal process.
“If these people weren’t confirmed criminals, they would not be in our prisons, period.“
He also said that previous crime-ridden areas are now tourist attractions, such as the National Palace on the Plaza Gerardo Barrios.
Vendors in these areas had to pay commissions to the gangs in order to operate their businesses, he said.
“If they didn’t, they'd go into the market, shoot them right in front of everyone, in broad daylight, and get away with it. Simple as that,“ he said.
—Darlene Sanchez, Stacy Robinson
BOOKMARKS
Donald Trump has ordered a 90-day pause on the reciprocal tariffs that took effect at midnight on Wednesday, saying that more than 75 nations were reaching out to negotiate. However, the pause does not include China, which had its tariffs raised to 125 percent.
Judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit have struck down a lower court ruling that ordered the federal government to rehire probationary employees that were recently let go. U.S. District Judge James Bredar had previously ordered nearly 25,000 workers be rehired because the government had not given enough advance notice of their termination, or conducted individual employee assessments.
The Trump administration has halted more than $1.7 billion in funding to Cornell University and Northwestern University, while it investigates the institutions for civil rights violations. Among other issues, Cornell may have partnered with a nonprofit that “limits eligibility based on the race of participants,” and Northwestern is being investigated over complaints that it “may have failed to protect Jewish students and faculty members from unlawful discrimination.”
The National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) warns that China is recruiting current and former U.S. government workers “by posing as consulting firms, corporate headhunters, think tanks, and other entities on social and professional networking sites.” NCSC says some red flags to watch for include offers that are “too good to be true,” with “flexible work and a disproportionately high salary.”
—Stacy Robinson
