Speaker Mike Johnson rescheduled a vote on the House Republican budget plan shortly after deputies announced it was canceled, creating widespread confusion about the next steps for President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda.
The decision to scrap and then rescheduled the vote came after several conservative hard-liners made clear they would not support the fiscal blueprint as written. Adopting the budget measure is a key step toward passing the “big, beautiful bill” that Trump and Johnson have called for — one that includes border security, tax and energy provisions that the president campaigned on. It is unclear when or if House GOP leaders will bring the measure back up.
Given the House GOP’s tiny majority, and the united opposition of Democrats, the handful of hard-right holdouts are sufficient to block action.
They include Reps. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana. All four voiced public opposition to the budget plan Tuesday and could be seen on the House floor during an evening vote series speaking to various House GOP leaders.
Roughly an hour before the vote was scheduled to begin, Majority Leader Steve Scalise said “we’re still moving forward” as the whip effort continued. Then an unrelated floor vote was held open for more than an hour as the GOP whip team worked to win over the holdouts.
Democrats screamed “regular order” as the planned 15-minute vote stretched on and on. Shortly after 7:30 p.m., the vote was closed and members were informed the budget vote was canceled. Shortly afterward, leaders sent out another alert saying the vote was back on.
Trump was among those who put the pressure on Tuesday, speaking to Burchett earlier in day in a phone call placed by Johnson.
“I told him that I would talk about it, think about it, pray about it. And that’s what I’m doing,” Burchett said afterward, saying he would decide “right before I walk up” for the vote.
Johnson cannot lose more than two GOP votes given current House attendance.
Two Democrats — Reps. Raul Grijlava of Arizona and Kevin Mullin of California — were expected to be absent for the final vote but two others — Brittany Pettersen of Colorado and Frederica Wilson of Florida — were seen on the floor after missing votes earlier in the day.
The fiscal hawks all raised objections about inadequate spending cuts in the measure; Davidson also aired concerns about how Republican leaders plan to handle the impending March 14 government funding deadline.
Leadership had been hoping that members would fall in line behind the budget plan as the only way to deliver the vast agenda Trump is seeking. Some hard-liners agreed to back the plan last month in the House Budget Committee after securing an additional $500 billion in spending cuts over 10 years.
But others held out for more. And a different faction of the GOP conference — moderate Republicans, many representing swing districts — had qualms about the scale of the Medicaid cuts implied by the budget plan.
That group, however, showed signs of softening: On Monday night, some said that a presentation from House leaders had moved them closer to supporting the budget plan.
Asked earlier Tuesday about the prognosis for a vote, Johnson was noncommittal in addressing reporters.
“There may be a vote tonight, there may not be. Stay tuned,” he said.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
