Speaker Mike Johnson is navigating a precarious path to advance President Donald Trump's legislative agenda in the House of Representatives, where the Republicans currently hold a slim one-seat majority.
The House is set to vote as early as Tuesday evening on a resolution that will pave the way for a budget bill aimed at implementing the president's inaugural tax and spending priorities.
Johnson's task is a challenging one, as he must reconcile the views of moderate House Republicans and conservative fiscal hawks on the proposed spending cuts within the resolution and the government programs to be targeted for savings in the upcoming budget bill.
According to the Daily Caller, President Trump endorsed the House budget proposal on February 19, thereby intensifying the pressure on Johnson to secure the votes needed to pass a budget resolution this week, despite the narrow Republican majority.
The Democrats in the House are expected to unanimously oppose the budget resolution, leaving the House GOP leadership with a razor-thin margin of errorthey can afford to lose only one Republican vote to ensure the resolution's passage. Republican Indiana Representative Victoria Spartz has already announced her intention to vote against the "current version" of the resolution, citing concerns that the House Republicans' budget plan does not sufficiently curtail spending.
"[R]oughly 85% of spending is not ever even looked at by Congress convenient if you would like to hide waste, fraud and abuse," Spartz wrote. "I have a responsibility to the people I represent to find $1T of their hard earned money!"
Johnson and the House GOP leadership are striving to pass all of the president's tax and spending priorities in "one big, beautiful bill." The budget plan instructs House committees to reduce spending by $200 billion annually over a decade, assuming House Republicans can achieve the $2 trillion target in spending cuts outlined by the budget resolution.
However, some moderate House Republicans, particularly those in battleground districts, are resisting the inclusion of deep spending cuts in the resolution to counterbalance $4.5 trillion in deficit increases required to implement the president's tax agenda, which includes an extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts.
Eight House Republicans, spearheaded by Texas Representative Tony Gonzales, penned a joint letter to Johnson on February 19, urging the House GOP leadership to avoid cuts to Medicaid, Pell grants, and food assistance programs in the upcoming budget bill.
Conservative fiscal hawks, such as Republican Texas Representative Chip Roy, are urging House Republicans to adopt a more aggressive stance on mandatory spending cuts through the budget reconciliation process. Roy has warned that the current House budget resolution instructions could exacerbate the deficit, but he has indicated his willingness to support the resolution.
On February 21, the Senate approved a pared-down budget plan that greenlights funding for the president's border security and defense spending priorities. Thune has portrayed the Senate's budget proposal as a contingency plan should the House fail to pass its own budget resolution.
"[I]f the House can produce a bill next week that deals with the tax pieces of this, components of it, I expect at some point this is all going to merge," Thune told Fox News' Will Cain on February 19. "And you know, were all working in the same direction, were all headed to the same outcome, and that is to allow the president to deliver on the agenda that he campaigned on, and that the American people, I think, expect him to deliver on."
However, Johnson has dismissed the Senate's budget proposal as a non-starter in the House chamber.
Spartz has previously clashed with House GOP leadership over reducing government spending and addressing the nation's escalating $36 trillion debt.
The Indiana Republican announced in December that she would not participate in committees or the House Republican conference, citing her dissatisfaction with the House GOP leadership. Initially, Spartz was undecided about supporting Johnson's bid for the speakership, but she ultimately cast a "yes" vote for Johnson during the January 3 vote.
Login