House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) floated a framework for advancing President Trump’s legislative agenda during a private meeting of panel members Tuesday morning, sources told The Hill.
Arrington explained the latest blueprint shortly before he told lawmakers during a closed-door House GOP conference meeting that his committee will take up a budget resolution on Thursday, an ambitious timeline for the group that has thus far struggled to coalesce around a plan. The committee has officially scheduled the Thursday meeting.
The framework Arrington outlined — according to two sources and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who sits on the panel — includes a $1.5 trillion floor for spending cuts with a $2 trillion target, a structure meant to give committees flexibility when crafting the package, one of the sources said.
The blueprint also includes a $4.5 trillion cap on deficit increase instruction, a number that the Ways and Means Committee would use to craft the tax portion of the package, the sources said.
One source said there was “some degree of understanding” that if the $2 trillion in cuts is not achieved, the deficit increase instruction number could decrease.
It remains unclear if the framework discussed in the meeting Tuesday morning will be the product that the conference forges ahead with. The source said the panel “discussed as to whether we can or should go mark that up on Thursday.”
While the level of cuts is far higher than the proposed $500 billion floor that leadership included in a previous proposal, it is still lower than the roughly $2.5 trillion that several conservatives are pushing for.
“These numbers were discussed this morning,” Norman told The Hill, but noted that the committee floated alternative ideas, including the House Freedom Caucus budget resolution, which was released on Monday. The conservative group is looking at a two-track reconciliation strategy, with the first bill providing $200 billion in border and military funding and $486 billion in cuts.
House Republicans are under mounting pressure to move a budget resolution to advance Trump’s domestic policy priorities. Republicans on Capitol Hill are looking to use the budget reconciliation process to pass items on his wish list, which, if successful, would allow the party to circumvent Democratic opposition in the Senate. But it requires near-unanimity in the conferences, which is difficult to achieve in the slim House GOP majority.
Passing a budget resolution unlocks the reconciliation process.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has insisted that the House move first on a budget resolution, insisting that a one-bill strategy is the best way to achieve Trump’s agenda. Senate Republicans, however, have favored a two-bill track, and the chamber is moving ahead with that plan as the House struggles to come to an agreement.
The Senate Budget Committee is set to mark up its own budget resolution on Wednesday.
The level of spending cuts in the House budget resolution has been one of the final — and major — hangups as the chamber looks to coalesce around an agreement.
