The House of Representatives on April 10 advanced a resolution that will allow Congress to move forward with President Donald Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda.
In a 216–214 vote, the lower chamber approved the Senate-passed budget blueprint, in spite of lingering concerns among some Republicans of the potential financial impact of the Senate’s instructions.
Two Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana, opposed the package.
“Among many other things, it will be the Largest Tax and Regulation Cuts ever even contemplated,” the president wrote.
With the passage of the resolution by the lower chamber, both the House and Senate can now begin work on drafting the language—including policies, appropriations, and spending cuts—that will appear in the final package.
Advancing the blueprint was required to begin the reconciliation process, which Republicans are using to bypass the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the Senate that kills most other legislation on arrival.
In a statement after the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wrote, “By clearing this critical hurdle, House committees can now work in tandem with Senate committees to swiftly prepare their respective parts of the reconciliation bill, keeping us on track for markups during the next work period.”
The previous night, he pulled a vote on the compromise budget resolution, after holding open a previous vote for an hour and 15 minutes, because of continued Republican opposition.
With Republicans’ 220 seats to Democrats’ 213 seats in the House of Representatives, Johnson couldn’t afford to spare more than three defectors. In the days leading up to the April 10 adoption of the resolution, that goal seemed distant.
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) told reporters on April 8 that as many as 40 Republican critics of the package remained unpersuaded.
The Senate passed the measure on April 5. Because it is not formal legislation but only instructions to both chambers on how to draft the legislation, the resolution does not require Trump’s signature.
The blueprint approved by the House was first unveiled by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on April 2, largely reflecting what was expected of the package. It addressed tax, energy, defense, and homeland security policy, and included a variety of proposed spending cuts.
However, numerous provisions in this Senate version—including the extent of deficit cuts and Medicaid cuts, and raising the debt ceiling by as much as $5 trillion—divided the House Republican 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, although the final reconciliation bill will be.
The compromise budget resolution instructs the House and Senate to allocate an additional $100 billion and $150 billion, respectively, toward defense over a decade. It would also make the 2017 tax cuts permanent and includes measures related to border security and U.S. 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.
Others, such as House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) expressed general concerns about the Senate instructions’ financial impact. Arrington argued that the package proposed by the upper chamber is largely about new spending without enforceable cuts.
Massie shared that position, telling reporters after the vote that he could support only a package that would not worsen the federal deficit—which he said the current package would do through its failure to balance tax cuts with new spending cuts.
At the same time, other members remain skeptical about the legislation achieving the magnitude of cuts sought by conservatives in the House GOP, who would like to cut more than $1.5 trillion.
“We may not get to the $1.5 trillion all at one time,” said Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), a purple district Republican who has been outspoken in her criticism of any efforts to substantively cut the Medicaid program.
Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.), a centrist in the Republican conference, disagreed, saying that “the idea that [ House lawmakers] can’t cut $1.5 trillion” without cuts to Medicaid is misinformation.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on April 10 that the goal is to have $1.5 trillion in deficit cuts.
“This process has required a lot of close consultation between the White House and the Senate, and all of that has been necessary because we want to make sure that we are delivering on our shared goals in the budget reconciliation process,” Mike Johnson said during a news conference alongside Thune.
