Speaker Mike Johnson is projecting confidence about finalizing a GOP budget plan after he and President Donald Trump went to work on a group of Republican holdouts at a White House meeting Tuesday — but they still haven’t locked up the votes.
“We had a lot of members whose questions were answered, and I think we’re moving, making great progress right now,” Johnson told reporters as he arrived back in the Capitol. He has about 10 members threatening to vote no, with dozens more undecided.
Trump assured meeting attendees that he would follow through with big spending cuts even though the newly finalized Senate instructions go nowhere near the minimum $1.5 trillion in reductions that the House is targeting. Trump made a similar pledge to some Senate Republicans last week.
“We have a deficit of trust sometimes between the two chambers, but I think when the White House and the president himself expresses his resolve for this, … we take it in good faith that we’re going to do this together in a collaborative effort and deliver this agenda,” Johnson said.
Trump did secure at least one vote: Rep. Ron Estes of Kansas, a Budget Committee deficit hawk, said “I’m a yes” after the meeting. But one key holdout who attended the meeting, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, said he remained opposed.
“Why am I voting on a budget based on promises that I don’t believe are going to materialize?” Roy asked, referring to the Senate plan.
Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, who didn’t attend the meeting, also said he wanted to see a plan for spending cuts before committing his support: “Details matter,” he said. Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee said much the same: “They got to make some cuts. That’s all they got to do, is make some cuts.”
Johnson has to decide soon whether to have the House Rules Committee meet and prep the budget for a floor vote Wednesday. Key panel member Ralph Norman — one of the three hard-liners who could block further progress — said he was undecided Tuesday afternoon.
Trump and Johnson will have another chance to make their case later Tuesday, before an NRCC gala dinner where the president is expected to lean on a different group of holdouts: “We all got to go put on our tuxedos, and I think we’ll be moving forward this week,” Johnson said.
Ben Jacobs and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
