The House Republican approach to President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda moved a step closer to approval after Republicans stayed united on a test vote, setting up a possible final floor vote Tuesday evening.
The Trump-backed fiscal blueprint still faces tough odds on final adoption, with a handful of conservative hard-liners demanding it get rewritten to guarantee deeper spending cuts. Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford one GOP defection on a party-line vote if all members are voting.
But clearing the procedural hurdle was still a victory for Johnson, who made public and private appeals to holdouts with concerns about the underlying budget measure. The final vote was 217-211; one Republican, Dan Crenshaw of Texas, and four Democrats — Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, Kevin Mullin of California, Brittany Pettersen of Colorado and Frederica Wilson of California — did not vote.
The whipping for the final budget vote was underway as lawmakers voted Tuesday afternoon — an effort that included the president.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) walked into the chamber while talking on the phone with Trump, continuing a conversation that appeared to begin in Johnson’s office. “Thank you, Mr. President,” he was overheard saying; he confirmed to a reporter that it was Trump. When the call wrapped, Burchett handed the phone back to Johnson in the back of the House chamber.
Johnson separately held an extended conversation with two key GOP holdouts on the floor — Reps. Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
The afternoon vote, on a rule setting up floor consideration of the budget measure, was helped along because it also set up votes on two energy-related Congressional Review Act measures that have broad Republican support.
Johnson hopes to push the fiscal blueprint through the House on Tuesday evening. Adopting the budget measure is a key step toward passing the “big, beautiful bill” that Trump and top House Republicans have called for — one that includes border security, tax and energy provisions that the president campaigned on.
Meredith Lee Hill and Nicholas Wu contributed to this report.
