House Panels to Hold Markups That Unveil Details of GOP Bill to Advance Trump’s Agenda

Four committees are permitted to increase spending, while all others must suggest deep cuts in their areas of jurisdiction.

(L-R) Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas), Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.), Rep. Michael Guest (R-Miss.), Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-Tenn.), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) hold a news conference to introduce new immigration and border legislation at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on April 27, 2023. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

WASHINGTON—The U.S. House of Representatives, after returning from its spring recess, is set to begin drafting bills that will authorize funds for President Donald Trump’s policy objectives. The “markups”—long sessions in which bills are considered, amended, and advanced to the full House—are set to begin in the week of April 28 to May 2.

The bills are being drafted under the aegis of the “budget reconciliation” process, whereby Congress can pass and present special legislation to the president that concerns taxation, spending, and public borrowing without requiring the support of 60 senators in the Senate to invoke cloture and prevent a ‘filibuster.” Since 2016, the most consequential legislation in federal politics has often been enacted through the reconciliation process, such as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Trump wants one bill to be passed by Congress, using this process, that funds his proposal to construct a wall along the border with Mexico, increase removal operations against foreign nationals unlawfully present in the United States, and permanently enact several tax rate cuts of the TCJA set to expire at the end of 2025. On April 10, the Senate and House finally concurred in a budget resolution that determined the parameters of the substantive bill, which will be drafted by the House Budget Committee with input from other standing committees, whose markup sessions for this purpose are underway.

Most significantly, the budget resolution has details on which policy areas will increase their spending and, correspondingly, where spending will be cut. The standing committees are required to recommend new spending or cuts based on those details, which will occur during the markups. There, the committee reviews line by line a draft bill proposed by the chairman and receives amendments from members, which then receive a vote. They are often long sessions, since the minority party usually offers many amendments designed to undermine the bill.

Border security and immigration reforms are likely to be the biggest focus. The two committees dealing with those issues—the Committee on Homeland Security, which oversees the border and removal operations, and the Committee on the Judiciary, which oversees Immigration Courts that conduct deportation proceedings and decide many asylum cases—collectively have $200 billion to increase spending.

In the Judiciary Committee, the text of the chairman’s mark (i.e., the draft bill) has been released. Most significantly, the bill would create fees for processing asylum applications that are charged to asylum seekers themselves, whose cases are presently adjudicated without charge. The minimum application fee would become $1,000, while other benefits, such as parole, would also have fees levied. The Homeland Security Committee, by contrast, has not released its chairman’s mark. Its markup will be held on April 29.

The Armed Services Committee, likewise, is required to increase spending on defense by at least $100 billion per the terms of the budget resolution. The committee has released the chairman’s mark, which authorizes $150 billion in new spending, an increase of $50 billion over the resolution. The draft text authorizes billions of dollars for the Navy, specifically shipbuilding, to support the U.S. military’s efforts to deter aggression by the People’s Republic of China in the Pacific Ocean and South China Sea.

“China is our pacing threat and our defense investments must reflect that. ... I’m pushing for an increased spending ... through reconciliation,” Rogers remarked at a hearing of his committee in April. In addition to shipbuilding, the draft text authorizes new money for missile defense.

Apart from them, the only other committee with authority to increase spending is the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees all taxation and revenue-raising matters. The chairman’s mark in this committee has not yet been released and is highly anticipated, given that it will include the TCJA authorizations.

Much controversy has ensued over what provisions of the TCJA will actually be made permanent. In the Senate, the reconciliation process is subject to an additional rule, known as the Byrd Rule, that prevents the consideration of bills that increase the budget deficit after 10 years. The cost of TCJA extension is estimated to be $4.5 trillion and will require significant spending cuts as offsets. Republicans have publicly mulled excluding some extensions to make the package more affordable.

All other committees in the House are required to cut spending. So far, only the House Financial Services Committee has scheduled its markup and released its draft, which cuts just $1 billion in spending per the terms of the budget resolution. Most of the cuts are rescissions of the Inflation Reduction Act’s grant funding for retrofits of homes with green technologies.

Once the markups are complete, they will be collated into a final bill that will be considered by the full House. The Senate must engage in the same procedure for the bill.