It looks that House GOP leaders’ hopes to schedule a House-wide vote next week were severely thwarted when President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” failed to clear the House Budget Committee on Friday.
Out of the four House Republicans that voted against the measure, four were from Texas: Chip Roy, Josh Brecheen, Andrew Clyde, and Ralph Norman.
Representative Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania, the fifth Republican in the House, similarly changed his vote from “yes” to “no,” but this time it was a formality that would allow him to reintroduce the bill. Smucker expressed his “quite confident” belief in the bill’s success to reporters.
The committee is expected to adjourn on Monday rather than Friday, according to House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-Texas).
Massive legislation resulting from the joint work of eleven separate House committees on policymaking within their respective purviews was marked up and debated at the committee’s meeting. The end product is a comprehensive plan that raises the debt ceiling, improves energy production, promotes Trump’s agenda items on the border and immigration, and increases taxes.
However, the media had no clue as to what would happen because tensions were high in the corridor outside the conference chamber of the House Budget Committee right from the start.
After initially being anticipated to skip the committee hearing, Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, shocked reporters by arriving to the Cannon House Office Building. Gill had been at home with his wife and newborn infant.
Because of his presence, House Republican leaders gained some additional leeway, enabling the committee to lose two Republican votes and nonetheless pass the measure instead of just one.
But four Republicans in the House already had voiced their opposition to the measure before the meeting even started.
Roy, Norman, Clyde, and Brecheen stormed out of the room minutes before the meeting was supposed to start, barely uttering a word as they disappeared.
Soon after, they both returned to deliver their introductory statements, in which they vehemently opposed the bill.
Similar to their frustration with the postponement of the phase-out of green energy subsidies from former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, fiscal hawks are irate that the bill’s provisions limiting Medicaid would not take effect until 2029.
We are just asked to place our bets on the come that all will function in five years in Washington. Afterwards, we will find a solution,” Roy remarked while debating. The course our community is taking has to be altered. And sure, my colleagues on the opposite side of the aisle are correct; that does include Medicaid.
In an effort to address the concerns raised by the fiscal hawks, Norman once emerged from the meeting and requested a recess for the committee.
He continued by saying he was still awaiting promises from House GOP leaders and warned that things would not go well if a vote was called at this time.
Just minutes after that, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.—who is not on the committee but has been talking with those who are still on the fence—told reporters that he hoped the bill will pass the Budget committee “as soon as possible.”
“I just walked out of the meeting with him a few minutes ago as well. Then I heard about Norman’s comments,” he stated in response. When we hear back from the Trump administration, we will address Ralph’s and others’ concerns and provide them with the answers they need.
While we were making progress, the vote was announced without the concerns being resolved, thus I voted no,” Roy remarked on X following the vote. Over the weekend, I will be in Washington to make a delivery.
“Medicaid Work requirements must start NOW not 2029 & the Green New Scam must be fully repealed, as President Trump called for,” Roy wrote on the website.
Trump had earlier used Truth Social to call out the bill’s opponents as “grandstanders” and rally Republicans behind it.
The rebels didn’t seem to hear him, however it’s worth noting that Trump is now returning from a diplomatic trip to the Middle East and isn’t in Washington.
The Republicans in the House are attempting to implement Trump’s agenda through the budget reconciliation procedure, which enables the party in power of the House, the Senate, and the White House to approve comprehensive bills while excluding the minority party altogether.
For legislation pertaining to expenditure, taxes, or the national debt, it does this by reducing the Senate’s passing threshold from 60 to 51 votes.
Republican leader Mike Johnson of Louisiana has stated his intention to have the measure approved by the House by Memorial Day in order to bring it into harmony with the Senate and have it sent to President Trump’s desk by the Fourth of July.
That might yet happen if House Budget Committee Republicans can come to a consensus to move the bill forward on Monday.
Following that, it would be sent to the House Rules Committee for any revisions, and then later that week, it would be voted on by the whole House.
It will be necessary for the House to resolve its disagreements with its upper chamber counterparts before the legislation is completed, since Republican senators have already expressed their desire for certain amendments to the plan.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus, who oppose the measure and are members of the Budget Committee, have stated their intention to remain in Washington through the weekend in order to keep working.
The negotiating process is ongoing. We will not be departing at this moment. According to a spokesperson for the Freedom Caucus who talked with HeadlinesForever Digital, the group has been making headway and is still working on the bill.