Trump's big bill advances in rare weekend vote as conservative holdouts secure changes
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Johnson is looking to put the bill on the House floor before the end of the week
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans advanced their massive tax cut and border security package out of a key House committee during a rare Sunday night vote as deficit hawks who blocked the measure two days earlier reversed course after gaining commitments on the package’s spending cuts.
Speaker Mike Johnson met with Republican lawmakers shortly before the meeting, telling reporters that the changes agreed to were “just some minor modifications. Not a huge thing.”
Democrats on the panel pressed for more details about the changes that Republicans had agreed to in the private negotiations. But Rep. Jodey Arrington, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said he could not do so.
“Deliberations continue at this very moment,” Arrington said. “They will continue on into the week, and I suspect right up until the time we put this big, beautiful bill on the floor of the House.”
The first time Republicans tried advancing the bill out of the House Budget Committee, deficit hawks joined with Democratic lawmakers in voting against reporting the measure to the full House. Five Republicans voted no, one on procedural grounds, the other four voicing concerns about the bill’s impact on federal budget deficits.
On Sunday evening, the four voicing concerns about the bill’s impact on the deficit voted present, and the measure passed by a vote of 17-16.
Johnson is looking to put the bill on the House floor before the end of the week.
“This is the vehicle through which we will deliver on the mandate that the American people gave us in the last election,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
The Republicans who criticized the measure noted that the bill’s new spending and the tax cuts are front-loaded in the bill, while the measures to offset the cost are back-loaded. For example, they are looking to speed up the new work requirements that Republicans want to enact for able-bodied participants in Medicaid. Those requirements would not kick in until 2029 under the current bill.
“We are writing checks we cannot cash, and our children are going to pay the price,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the committee. “Something needs to change, or you’re not going to get my support.”
Johnson said the start date for the work requirements was designed to give states time to “retool their systems” and to “make sure that all the new laws and all the new safeguards that we’re placing can actually be enforced.”
Roy was joined in voting no by Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma and Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia. Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania switched his vote to no in a procedural step so it could be reconsidered later, saying after the hearing he was confident Republicans would “get this done.” Johnson said talks to deal with their concerns were continuing Sunday.
Remarkably, the vote against advancing the bill came after President Donald Trump had called on Republicans in a social media post to unite behind it.
“We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party,” Trump posted. “STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!”
