House Republicans on Thursday approved a massive budget blueprint, clearing the way for President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda to move forward. The vote came after days of internal division and a last-minute push by GOP leaders to win over more than a dozen conservative skeptics.
The resolution will provide the legislative vehicle for Republicans to advance key priorities, including making Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent, expanding domestic energy production, reducing federal regulations and delivering new funding to support Trump’s goal of eliminating taxes on tipped wages and overtime pay.
The 216-214 vote marks a surprising win for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who was forced to scrap a planned vote Wednesday night after failing to secure enough support from conservative holdouts.
As The Hill reports:
Only two Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Victoria Spartz (Ind.) — voted against the measure.
It was not, however, an easy path to victory for the GOP leadership. More than a dozen hardline House conservatives had come out against the Senate resolution, vowing to vote against the legislation if it came to the floor out of concern over the level of spending cuts mandated in the measure.
That opposition forced Johnson yank a planned vote on the measure Wednesday night. As leadership held open an unrelated vote for almost 90 minutes, Johnson huddled in a room off the House floor with several of the conservative holdouts in an unsuccessful attempt to secure their support — prompting the delay.
The linchpin in leadership’s effort appeared to be a joint press appearance Thursday morning by Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), where the pair delivered brief remarks regarding spending cuts. The hardliners were incensed that the budget resolution directed Senate committees to find far fewer spending cuts than House panels — at least $1.5 trillion compared to at least $4 billion — worried that the upper chamber would reign supreme.
House leadership spent much of the week working behind the scenes to lock down support conservative members threatened to block the plan. Many had expressed concerns about the size of the national debt and called for deeper spending cuts.
According to Fox News, at least one House Republican expressed frustration with Johnson’s handling of the situation:
“He kept the entire conference out on the floor for 80 minutes while you play graba– with these people,” the GOP lawmaker fumed. “And all day it was like, ‘Oh, we’re going to get this done.'”
That House Republican said, “All the chatter we were hearing was [holdouts were] down to single digits. But 17 … 20 people were in that room. So clearly there was a much bigger problem than they were letting on all day.”
Traditionally, the House and Senate must pass identical reconciliation frameworks to begin the work of crafting policy to fit into that framework.
Republicans are also working up against the clock – the debt ceiling is expected to be reached sometime this summer, after which the U.S. government risks a national default if it does not raise that limit to pay its debts.
Meanwhile, Trump’s 2017 tax cuts are set to expire at year’s end if Congress does not act.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
READ NEXT: US Enemy’s Last Chance? Will Trump’s Weekend Deadline Lead To Explosive Consequences?
