Washington — The House adopted a budget proposal on Tuesday that paves the way for implementing President Trump’s legislative agenda, handing a major victory to House Speaker Mike Johnson who had been trying to sway a small number of holdouts in the final hours before the vote.
Republicans narrowly adopted the resolution in a 217-215 vote with no Democratic support and only one GOP defection — Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. With one Democrat absent, Johnson could afford to lose just one GOP vote. Reps. Warren Davidson of Ohio, Victoria Spartz of Indiana and Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who had said they would not vote for the resolution, ultimately caved.
“We got it done” Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters following the resolution’s passage. “We have a lot of hard work ahead of us. We are going to deliver the American first agenda. We’re going to deliver all of it, not just parts of it, and this is the first step in that process.”
House GOP leadership stalled the vote for more than an hour then appeared to pull the vote, before bringing the bill back up minutes later. The House Democratic Whip’s Office said Republicans had assured Democrats there would be no further votes before it was brought back up.
Johnson worked the phones with Mr. Trump to persuade holdouts ahead of the vote. The speaker also met with them to work through their concerns about the package that would enact Mr. Trump’s massive defense, border security, energy and tax agenda.
“The president talked to a number of members,” Johnson told reporters earlier in the day. “He’s made his intentions well known, and he wants them to vote for this and move it along so we can start the process.”
Johnson has been racing to move forward with the resolution, a crucial step in the budget reconciliation process, after House Republican infighting spurred the Senate to forge ahead with a competing plan earlier this month. Johnson won a key victory last week when Mr. Trump endorsed his chamber’s budget outline.
The House GOP budget plan instructs committees to craft legislation that would cut $4.5 trillion in taxes and at least $1.5 trillion in spending, while raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion. If House committees don’t achieve at least $2 trillion in spending cuts, then tax cuts would be scaled back, according to an amendment to the resolution that was added to appease conservatives.
House Democrats widely oppose the measure, and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote a letter to his caucus on Monday telling them “it’s imperative that we are present with maximum attendance.” Jeffries, a New York Democrat, instructed lawmakers to appear on the Capitol steps Tuesday afternoon to demonstrate the budget resolution. When the caucus gathered on the steps, Jeffries said House Democrats would not “provide a single vote to this reckless Republican budget.”
“They will not get a single Democratic vote. Why? Because we are voting with the American people,” Jeffries said. He said Democrats are opposed to potential cuts to Medicaid, nutritional assistance and veterans benefits that could be pursued in the budget reconciliation process.
The resolution tasks relevant committees with finding billions of dollars in cuts, some of which could target Medicaid, which has prompted concern among some Republicans, especially in battleground districts.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York was among the Republicans worried about Medicaid cuts, but she met with Johnson on Monday and said he assured her that Medicaid recipients would not be removed from the rolls “unless they are not fulfilling the work requirements, and they’re not citizens.”
House Republican leadership pushed back on the Medicaid concerns on Tuesday, calling it a Democratic talking point. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota said the budget resolution “merely unlocks the opportunity for committees to begin drafting legislation,” calling it a “blueprint to save America.” And House Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana stressed that Medicaid isn’t specifically mentioned in the budget resolution, noting that the vote is simply one to begin the reconciliation process.
Still, Johnson wouldn’t commit to preserving Medicaid in its entirety as the reconciliation process continues, and the budget resolution instructs the committee overseeing Medicaid to find $800 billion in cuts. Johnson said cuts to the program would target “fraud.”
“Medicaid is hugely problematic because it has a lot of fraud, waste and abuse,” Johnson said, when asked whether there could be cuts to the program down the line. “What we’re talking about is rooting out the fraud, waste and abuse.”
The House vote came after the Senate adopted its budget late last week, while the House was away on recess. Since Mr. Trump’s endorsement of the House resolution, Senate Republicans have billed their own budget plan as a backup. The Senate plan would divide the reconciliation process into two bills, with the first aimed at quickly delivering resources for border security and defense, while a later bill would tackle the tax priorities. Senate Republicans also want to make the tax cuts permanent, which the House version does not do.