After weeks of infighting and delays, House Republicans managed to advance a framework Thursday for President Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda on tax cuts, border security and more, defying skeptics as they battle the Senate GOP for control of the process.
Now that it’s cleared committee in a 21 to 16 vote, Republicans intend to wrangle that blueprint through the House of Representatives after returning from next week’s recess, putting them more-or-less back on track with leadership’s timeline of passing it by the month’s end.
Just a day before advancing it, the House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) rolled out a budget resolution, which is required to unlock the process Republicans need to successfully pass Trump’s “big, beautiful” agenda.
Shockingly, during a committee markup on the resolution Thursday, key GOP hardliners heaped praise on the budget resolution framework after weeks of fueling concerns they may derail the ambitious agenda for not being conservative enough.
“This budget put forward by the chairman is a giant step forward to reduce spending,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), 52, declared during a committee hearing, “the primary driver of the inflation and the expansion of the government largesse that is strangling the future of our children and grandchildren.”
“I’m proud of what the chairman has put forward,” he said. “Our government spends too much, and we have to stop that. And the American people deserve to have more money in their pockets. This budget accomplishes both.”
Roy, a Freedom Caucus member, has long been a source of frustration for Republican leaders, with his repeated demands for the party to pursue deeper cuts and deficit reduction.
At times, his recalcitrance has stoked the ire of Trump, 78, who has also been vexed by Roy’s backing of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during the 2024 primary.
The budget resolution allowed the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee to increase the deficit by $4.5 trillion over 10 years for tax cuts.
It set a non-binding goal of $2 trillion in spending cuts and doled out specific assignments to committees for $1.5 trillion worth of reductions. The measure also called for $300 billion in additional spending for border security and national defense and to hike the debt limit by $4 trillion.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), 71, another Freedom Caucus member, who has been less of a thorn in leadership’s side but remains a fiscal hawk, also lauded the blueprint.
“Jodey, what your team good team has done under your leadership has reduced the deficit by a minimum of $1.2 trillion, which is the first time in my lifetime that we have done that,” Norman beamed.
The House Budget Committee had initially been slated to roll out its blueprint last week. After it failed to do so, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) unveiled an alternative budget resolution and revealed plans to leapfrog the House.
Underpinning the move were concerns that House Republicans simply weren’t going to be able to get their act together — a sentiment shared far and wide among Senate GOPers.
Graham further bucked House GOP leadership with a plan to split Trump’s agenda package into two parts — one tranche of border, energy and defense reforms that Republicans largely agree upon and a second on tax reform and deeper spending, which is more controversial.
Republican leadership in the House believes that splintering the package in two could doom their prospects of passing the final product, feeling that it would weaken their hand with hardliners.
The budget resolution is required to unlock the Senate reconciliation process by which Republicans plan to get the final bill through the upper chamber in order to circumvent a Dem filibuster.
“This budget resolution provides the fiscal framework for what will be one of the most consequential pieces of legislation in modern history, and the principal legislative vehicle for delivering on President Trump’s America First agenda,” Arrington exulted during his opening remarks.
“The era of wasteful, woke and weaponized government is over,” he added. “This budget resolution is more than numbers on a ledger, it’s a blueprint for restoring America’s security, prosperity, and leadership in the world.”
Once the blueprint passes the full House chamber, Republican-led committees begin working to iron out the details of Trump’s agenda package.
The party has a rough baseline from prior legislation to guide its legislation on the border and energy. On taxes, they are hoping to extend the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and go further by eliminating taxes on tips, Social Security and overtime pay.
In a bone for blue state Republicans, they also plan to increase the cap on the state and local tax (SALT) deduction.
Some estimates have suggested that extending those 2017 tax cuts alone would increase the deficit by between about $3.5 trillion and $3.9 trillion over the next 10 years.
The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget blasted the GOP budget resolution and assessed that the framework sets the stage for “$3.3 trillion in new borrowing.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is hoping to get the final Trump agenda package through the House by Easter.
But once the framework clears the full House chamber, Republicans will face a much steeper climb to get their members in alignment on the final package.
