Trump Urges Republicans to Back Budget Plan as Holdouts Remain

Several Republicans remain hesitant to give their blessing to the blueprint that has already passed the Senate.

The U.S. Capitol building in Washington on April 3, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

President Donald Trump urged Republicans to back the Senate’s budget proposal amid signs of opposition to the resolution in the lower chamber.

“Close your eyes and get there. It’s a phenomenal bill. Stop grandstanding,” Trump said on April 8.

The comment comes as several Republicans remain hesitant to give their blessing to a budget blueprint that has already passed the Senate. They raised concerns about its impact on the federal budget, the debt ceiling, and potential steamrolling by the upper chamber.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) condemned the Senate resolution in a statement, calling it “unserious and disappointing.”

Others have concerns about a provision in the Senate instructions that would raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion.

Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) told reporters these critics numbered around 40 members who are opposed or undecided. He indicated that many of the opponents are associated with the House Freedom Caucus.

With the vote expected to be party-line and opposed by all Democrats, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) can’t afford to lose nearly that many votes. Currently, with 220 seats to Democrats’ 213, Republicans can afford no more than three defections.

With many opponents remaining staunch in their opposition, Trump’s support may bring some back into the fold—but it’s unclear whether the president’s support will sway the most outspoken opponents of the legislation.

On April 8, Trump also spoke with Johnson and several conservative lawmakers at the White House.

In a post on Truth Social about the meeting, Trump wrote: “I had a very good meeting today with the Speaker of the House and some of our more Conservative Members, all great people. I let them know that, I AM FOR MAJOR SPENDING CUTS! WE ARE GOING TO DO REDUCTIONS, hopefully in excess of $1 Trillion Dollars.

“I, along with House Members and Senators, will be pushing very hard to get these large scale Spending Cuts done, but we must get the Bill approved NOW.”

Johnson told The Epoch Times the meeting was “very productive,” but didn’t provide further details.

Despite leadership’s expressed intention to bring the Senate’s blueprint up for a vote this week, so far, the House Rules Committee has punted expected votes on the package twice.

That may be in part because of the outspoken opposition expressed by two panel members—including Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas)—against the legislation.

Norman told The Epoch Times following the Senate’s unveiling of the blueprint that it was “DEAD ON ARRIVAL” in the lower chamber.

Since then, Norman has remained critical of the legislation in public comments.

Roy also appeared to remain opposed to the legislation.

“The Senate’s bill does not add up—it’s all tax cuts with no spending cuts which = deficits,” Roy wrote in a post on the social media platform X on April 8. It was one of many recent posts criticizing the legislation.

Ahead of this week’s session, Johnson sought to head off opposition in an April 5 “Dear Colleague” letter.

“Adopting the Senate’s amendment to the House resolution will allow us to finally begin the most important phase of this process: drafting the reconciliation bill that will deliver on President Trump’s agenda and our promises to the American people,” Johnson wrote.

To overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold that kills most partisan legislation in the Senate on arrival, Republicans are using the reconciliation process.

Under the rules of the process, both chambers must pass identical instructions to begin work on the package.

On April 2, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) unveiled Republicans’ draft of the budget instructions, which had resulted from weeks of bicameral negotiations between House and Senate Republicans. It wraps in tax policy, federal funding for energy, defense, and the border, and spending cuts.

The centerpiece of the Senate plan is making Trump’s 2017 personal income tax cuts permanent.

Many of its instructions for each chamber—including what to fund, the amounts, and spending cuts—still differ at this stage of the process to allow for flexibility in drafting the final legislation.

Each chamber is ordered to provide new spending for defense, with additional allocations for homeland security. Speaking in support of the bill on the floor, Graham said this funding would be used to reduce the influx of fentanyl, finish the border wall, and provide more detention bed space for processing deportees.

Technically, that resolution is an amendment to an earlier budget resolution that passed the House on Feb. 25.

The budget instructions for the House remain unchanged in the Senate’s amendment.