House GOP Pushes Budget Bill Through

By Jennifer Shutt, States Newsroom

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans despite their slim majority approved their budget resolution in a dramatic turn Tuesday night, following days of lobbying by leadership to sway a handful of members who originally planned to vote against the measure.

The 217-215 vote sends the budget to the Senate, where Republicans in that chamber need to vote to adopt it before GOP members can unlock the process they plan to use to approve policies they promised voters they’d enact with unified control of government. Those include border security and an extension of the 2017 tax cuts.

Approval followed a theatrical couple of hours in the House, where GOP leaders appeared to postpone the original vote and members left the chamber en masse. About 15 minutes later, lawmakers were frantically called back to vote on the budget resolution after Republican leadership secured the votes.

Kentucky’s Thomas Massie was the only Republican to vote against the budget resolution, which was opposed by every Democrat voting. Tennessee’s Tim Burchett, Ohio’s Warren Davidson and Indiana’s Victoria Spartz, who opposed approval earlier in the day, voted with their fellow GOP colleagues in support.

Massie said following a closed-door Republican Conference meeting Tuesday morning that he had gone from leaning against the budget resolution to being a solid no vote.

“If the Republican plan passes, under the rosiest assumptions, which aren’t even true, we’re going to add $328 billion to the deficit this year, we’re going to add $295 billion to the deficit the year after that, $242 billion to the deficit after that,” Massie said. “Why would I vote for that?”

Congress’ budget resolution is a tax and spending blueprint that doesn’t actually spend any money, but is intended to help lawmakers plan out how much they want the federal government to bring in through taxes and fees, and how much they want it to spend on government programs during the next decade.

Lawmakers must then implement any changes proposed in the budget resolution with either a reconciliation bill or regular legislation. Otherwise, the changes cannot take effect since the budget resolution isn’t a bill and never goes to the president for his signature.

House Budget Committee ranking member Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., said during floor debate on the budget resolution that its reconciliation instructions call on committees that oversee Medicaid, nutrition assistance and education programs to cut hundreds of billions of dollars to pay for a portion of the tax cuts.

Boyle argued that the proposed reductions in spending would cut more than $1 trillion, but not enough to cover the $4.5 trillion in new deficits that the budget resolution allows Congress to implement on tax cuts.

Boyle said he expects the gap to add to the national debt.

“A massive increase to our national debt from the same crowd that for the last four years has done nothing but shed crocodile tears about the size of our national debt,” Boyle said.

The House budget resolution proposes that Congress raise the nation’s debt limit by $4 trillion in the reconciliation process that will take place later this year.

GOP dissent

Burchett said in an interview Tuesday morning that if House Republican leaders wanted him to vote for the budget resolution, they should start by scheduling a meeting.

“That would be a good start, I would think,” Burchett said.

“And second: We promised the people we’re going to have cuts, and then we are just going to turn right around and spend the money up at the Pentagon. The war pimps will get theirs no matter what, anyway,” Burchett added. “And President Trump has talked about permanent tax cuts. I don’t think they’re in there. They talk about all this DOGE cuts, which are great, America loves. But what they don’t realize is they’re just going to attack them right back on the money we save.”

Burchett said he would like public verbal confirmation from GOP leadership that Congress will address some of the policy changes they promised voters they’d make.

He later posted a video on social media saying that he was heading to the speaker’s office, “allegedly to have a conversation with him over this budget situation.”

“I don’t know if I’m getting called to the woodshed or what,” he said. “But we’ll get it figured out.”

Identical resolutions needed

The House and Senate must vote to adopt the same budget resolution before Republicans can use the budget reconciliation process to move core policy goals through Congress without needing Democratic votes to get past the Senate’s 60-vote legislative filibuster.

The Senate voted last week to approve its budget resolution following a marathon amendment voting session, but House GOP leaders have decided to try to move forward with their own version.

The Senate budget resolution proposes that Congress first approve legislation increasing defense and border security funding by hundreds of billions of dollars and remaking energy policy. Congress would then approve a second budget resolution that would allow lawmakers to extend the 2017 GOP tax law in another reconciliation bill.

The House budget resolution proposes all of those initiatives are bundled together in one reconciliation package.

President Donald Trump said a few hours before the House vote that he was trying to decide which plan to support, despite endorsing the House’s one-bill plan last week.

“The House has a bill and the Senate has a bill, and I’m looking at them both, and I’ll make decisions,” Trump said. “But I don’t know where they are in the vote. I know the Senate’s doing very well, and the House is doing very well. But each one of them has things that I like, so we’ll see if we can come together.”

Turning an aircraft carrier

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during a press conference Tuesday morning that the “objective and our commitment” with a budget reconciliation bill has always been that it not increase the deficit.

“If we can reduce the deficit, even better,” Johnson said. “But here’s another thing everybody needs to consider; not only are we working to find savings for the American taxpayer; to find a better, more efficient, more effective use of their dollars, which we are morally obligated to do. We also have a moral obligation to bend the curve on the debt.”

The resolution under debate Tuesday could lead to increased deficits, as noted by GOP critics.

The annual deficit for fiscal year 2024 totaled $1.8 trillion dollars, according to the Treasury Department. When combined with decades of deficits that brought the national debt to more than $36 trillion.

Johnson said during his press conference the GOP can’t address the entire deficit or begin to pay down the nation’s debt in one bill, comparing it to turning an aircraft carrier.

“It takes miles of open ocean to turn an aircraft carrier because it’s such a large vessel,” Johnson said. “I think the metaphor is obvious here: We can’t do it all at once. But we are going to take a big bite out of that. We are going to make a big course correction in this process.”

“So stay tuned on the details,” Johnson added. “We are going to do this methodically, we’re going to do it in a very responsible manner and we’re going to achieve the goals.”

Last updated 7:43 p.m., Feb. 25, 2025