{"id":822173,"date":"2025-01-26T10:13:39","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T16:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/26\/house-senate-gop-at-odds-over-big-beautiful-budget-bill-plan\/"},"modified":"2025-01-26T10:13:39","modified_gmt":"2025-01-26T16:13:39","slug":"house-senate-gop-at-odds-over-big-beautiful-budget-bill-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/26\/house-senate-gop-at-odds-over-big-beautiful-budget-bill-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"House, Senate GOP at odds over \u2018big, beautiful\u2019 budget bill plan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Speaker Mike Johnson laid out an ambitious timeline Sunday for a mammoth budget reconciliation package that would enact much of President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s legislative agenda in the first 100 days of his new administration.<\/p>\n

The House plans to pass a single reconciliation bill as soon as April 3 that would incorporate border security, the extension of expiring tax cuts and an increase in the nation\u2019s borrowing limit coupled with spending cuts, among other things, Johnson said on Fox\u2019s \u201cSunday Morning Futures\u201d program. He said the Senate would then clear the package for Trump\u2019s signature by the end of April or \u201ccertainly by May.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Republicans and a key faction of House GOP conservatives have been urging a two-bill approach, with border security and defense spending first, coupled with energy deregulation measures and offsetting spending reductions, before turning to the tax-cut package.<\/p>\n

But Johnson made a public, emphatic case Sunday for a single-bill strategy using the reconciliation process, which could avoid a Democratic filibuster.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think at the end of the day, President Trump is going to prefer, as he likes to say, one big, beautiful bill,\u201d the Louisiana Republican said. While no one will like every element of the package, he said, \u201cthere will be enough elements in there to pull everyone along. So I think keeping it together is how we\u2019ll actually get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson also pointed to the political imperative of passing as much of Trump\u2019s agenda as possible in short order. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re going to be so aggressive about getting this through in the first 100 days, because we\u2019ll begin to see the effects of the economy very quickly and that will be important for the midterm elections in two years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Johnson said Congress would need to adopt a budget resolution, with the reconciliation framework for various committees to fill in the legislative details, early next month in order to keep the aggressive timetable on schedule.<\/p>\n

The speaker earlier detailed his strategy behind closed doors Saturday during a rare House GOP retreat\u00a0at Fort McNair, an Army base in southwest Washington, after he was narrowly reelected speaker on Friday, telling members Trump had endorsed the single-bill strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

[Johnson wins gavel on first ballot after flipping holdouts<\/a>]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In a late Sunday post on his social media platform, Trump made clear that he wants Republicans to unite and get to work quickly on \u201cone powerful Bill\u201d to enact his agenda. \u201cGet smart, tough, and send the Bill to my desk to sign as soon as possible,\u201d Trump wrote <\/a>on Truth Social.<\/p>\n

Larry Kudlow, a Fox commentator and first-term Trump administration economic official, initially broke the news<\/a> Friday that unnamed Trump advisers favored \u201cone big beautiful bill,\u201d which Kudlow endorsed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would include tax cuts, border closing, the DOGE brothers\u2019 spending cuts, energy deregulation, and a \u2018peace through strength\u2019 defense component,\u201d Kudlow wrote, referencing the unofficial \u201cDepartment of Government Efficiency\u201d co-chairs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy.<\/p>\n

Trump wrote that in addition to extensions of his 2017 tax cuts, he wants lawmakers to include\u00a0his proposal to exempt tip income from taxes. He said\u00a0some of the package\u2019s costs would be paid for with new import tariffs.<\/p>\n

Kudlow pointed out that much of the first year of Trump\u2019s first term was lost to debate over the \u201crepeal and replace\u201d health-care reconciliation package, which passed the House but ultimately fell short in the Senate. That pushed back Trump\u2019s signature tax cuts, which didn\u2019t get done until just before Christmas.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s not waste any time \u2014 such as what happened in 2017,\u201d Kudlow wrote, channeling the argument House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., has been making for weeks.<\/p>\n

\u2018A nightmare\u2019<\/h2>\n

But GOP senators were still pushing back on the one-bill plan, saying it was more important to focus first on border security and defense before turning to the more complicated issue of taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very worried that if we don\u2019t put border first and get it done, it\u2019s going to be a nightmare for our national security,\u201d incoming Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said on the same Fox program Sunday. He said he was hoping to get a border security measure passed by Feb. 17.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cTo the tax-cut wing of the party, I am with you,\u201d Graham said. \u201cBut if you hold border security hostage to get tax cuts, you\u2019re playing Russian roulette with our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has likewise been pushing for the two-pronged strategy and did so again in an interview taped Friday for CBS\u2019s \u201cFace the Nation\u201d program that aired Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some immediate concerns, matters that need to be addressed, one of which is national security, given the increasingly dangerous world in which we live, and of course I would argue that starts with the border,\u201d Thune said. \u201cSo border, national security, I think energy policy, energy dominance is a huge objective and goal, and I would hope that a reconciliation bill could also address that issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during GOP leaders\u2019 media availability in the Capitol on Dec. 10. (Bill Clark\/CQ Roll Call)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Trump\u2019s position is also striking because one of his top advisers\u00a0\u2014 incoming deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller \u2014\u00a0has publicly advocated for Thune\u2019s two-step plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cUntil Donald Trump announces his position himself a final decision isn\u2019t made, and it is imperative DHS has funding needed to secure the border as quickly as possible,\u201d a Senate GOP aide said earlier Sunday. But that was before Trump\u2019s late-night statement, suggesting that the issue is now closer to being settled.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just senators who may resist the all-in-one approach pushed by Trump and Johnson. Over a dozen House conservatives, including Freedom Caucus chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., and the group\u2019s policy director, Chip Roy of Texas, wrote to Thune and Johnson last month backing the two-bill plan.<\/p>\n

Harris said Saturday on Fox that a single package would take much longer to complete.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took us months to do the first tax cuts bill nine years ago,\u201d Harris said. \u201cThe bottom line is if that\u2019s what the president wants, he\u2019s going to have to wait until the summer to get it all ironed out. There are a group of us who support breaking it up into two pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris pushed back on concerns that lawmakers won\u2019t be able to pass two reconciliation bills in the same year, arguing that the 2017 health care package was a much heavier lift than the straightforward border and defense package they aimed to pass quickly.<\/p>\n

\u2018Zero room for error\u2019<\/h2>\n

But Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., another Freedom Caucus member, said Sunday on Fox that a tax-cut package could be assembled relatively quickly, particularly because most of it would simply amount to extensions of existing law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe already know what it is, so putting that into this vehicle is not going to be overly complex,\u201d Donalds said. Even \u201cadditives\u201d such as Trump\u2019s plan to exempt tips from taxes<\/a> would not be difficult, he said, pointing to bill language he already compiled with Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But passing a sweeping reconciliation package by April would nonetheless by a huge undertaking as Johnson tries to govern with a razor-thin majority of just 217 members, once two members resign to take up posts within the Trump administration. Congress already needs to pass final fiscal 2025 spending bills before current funding expires on March 14.<\/p>\n

And it will take considerable time to negotiate additional spending cuts in the fractious GOP conference that will be required to get enough support to raise the debt limit without any Democratic help.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Johnson said, \u201cyou have to raise the debt limit on paper so that we don\u2019t frighten the bond markets in the world\u2019s economy,\u201d but added that \u201cwe are going to be cutting [spending] all along the way so we can do both of those things simultaneously.\u201d<\/p>\n

House GOP lawmakers have previously committed to $2.5 trillion in 10-year cuts, a big number that could have difficulty securing centrist GOP votes, to accompany a $1.5 trillion debt limit increase.<\/p>\n

Conservatives, including those who initially held back their votes for Johnson on Friday, are sending a message that they could still move to oust him if their favored policies aren\u2019t enacted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eleven Freedom Caucus members led by Harris and Roy\u00a0\u2014 two more than the new threshold in House rules to trigger a potential \u201cmotion to vacate\u201d the speaker position \u2014\u00a0laid out their demands in a letter to colleagues after the speaker vote Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonalities can be debated later, but right now there is zero room for error on the policies the American people demanded when they voted for President Trump \u2014 the ones necessary to save the country,\u201d the Freedom Caucus letter says. \u201cWe demand the House of Representatives deliver \u2014 quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aidan Quigley and Paul M. Krawzak contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Alejandro Mongold
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaker Mike Johnson laid out an ambitious timeline Sunday for a mammoth budget reconciliation package that would enact much of President-elect Donald Trump\u2019s legislative agenda in the first 100 days of his new administration. The House plans to pass a single reconciliation bill as soon as April 3 that would incorporate border security, the extension<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":822174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,22721],"tags":[5065,8477],"class_list":{"0":"post-822173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-house","8":"category-senate","9":"tag-house","10":"tag-senate"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}