WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday muscled a multitrillion-dollar budget blueprint through the House by the narrowest of margins — a crucial step for Republicans as they embark on advancing President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.
The vote was 217-215, with Republicans casting all of the votes in favor of the budget resolution. Just one Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., joined all Democrats in voting against it.
The vote came after a dramatic day of arm-twisting in the House, with Johnson hosting multiple meetings in his office to win over GOP holdouts and Trump personally calling many of those same individuals.
Earlier Tuesday evening, in a chaotic moment, House Republican leaders appeared to briefly cancel the budget vote and send members home for the night, only to abruptly call up the vote and bring lawmakers back to the floor minutes later.
The successful vote puts the ball back in the Senate’s court. Because Trump has endorsed the House budget plan, the Senate will be under pressure to take up and pass that blueprint, even though the upper chamber adopted its own version earlier this month.
Under reconciliation, the process Republicans are using to attempt to enact Trump’s policy priorities on a party-line basis, both chambers need to pass the same budget resolution before committees can officially draft the legislative package.
The fate of the House’s resolution was uncertain for much of the day. A small band of conservatives had threatened to vote down the budget measure citing concerns over spending levels, while more moderate members expressed worry over potential cuts to Medicaid. But after a full day of meetings with Johnson and after Trump himself began calling holdouts, some of them began to soften their opposition.
The budget measure calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and a goal of $2 trillion in spending cuts. It includes more than $100 billion in new spending on immigration enforcement and the military. It also requires the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in cuts to federal programs, and Republicans say some of that will come from reducing spending on Medicaid.
Democrats unified in opposition to the GOP budget, slamming it as a tax cut for the wealthy that will hurt working-class families by cutting Medicaid. They have coalesced around that political message intended to drive a wedge between Trump and swing voters, as well as his own voters who rely on federal benefits.
Earlier Tuesday afternoon, the House advanced the budget resolution on a procedural vote of 217-211 along party lines, which set up a final vote Tuesday evening. Four Democrats and one Republican did not vote, giving Johnson some extra breathing room.
Addressing reporters after that vote, Johnson said that he was still working to win over skeptical Republicans and that he would be holding more meetings Tuesday afternoon, and he said Trump had been speaking to some of the holdouts, as well.
“There’s a couple of folks that still have a couple questions, and we’re going through it step by step,” Johnson said. “We’re making progress. … We’re trying to work through concerns and issues.”
“The president has talked to a number of members,” he continued. “He’s made his intentions well known, and he wants them to vote for this and move it along.”
The House’s vote is merely one step in a complicated process. If the Senate also adopts the budget resolution, it would instruct committees to craft a massive party-line bill that Republicans can fast-track to floor votes, which can skip the Senate’s 60-vote hurdle.
The budget measure calls for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and a goal of $2 trillion in spending cuts. It includes more than $100 billion in new spending on immigration enforcement and the military. It also requires the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in cuts to federal programs, and Republicans say some of that will come from reducing spending on Medicaid.
Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., the chair of the House’s tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, said earlier Tuesday there’s no fallback plan to extend the Trump tax cuts if the measure fails. He said the budget resolution the Senate adopted, which includes funding for border, military and energy policy but doesn’t address taxes, doesn’t stand a chance in the House.
“In order for us to start the process, we have to get a budget resolution,” Smith told NBC News. “The Senate version will never pass the House.”
Melanie Zanona and Kyle Stewart contributed.