House Republicans just barely managed to adopt their budget resolution. Now it has to survive the Senate’s woodchipper.
Quick recap: With GOP Reps. Thomas Massie, Tim Burchett, Warren Davidson and Victoria Spartz firmly opposed, House leaders pulled the budget resolution vote at the last minute Tuesday night, only to reverse course after a wild whip effort and some conversations with President Donald Trump. All but Massie flipped their votes when Republican leaders called members back to the floor.
Now that it’s approved, Senate Republicans are largely prepared to switch to the House’s one-bill track, which would link together defense, energy and border security with an overhaul of the tax code. But during a closed-door GOP lunch on Tuesday, senators discussed needing to negotiate changes to the House budget resolution, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss the private meeting.
The potential tweaks include making Trump’s tax cuts permanent, pulling back some of the House’s proposed deep spending cuts and removing the provision to raise the debt ceiling.
Remember: The Senate and the House have to adopt the same budget resolution to move forward, and Speaker Mike Johnson barely squeaked this one through. That all eventually leads to the really difficult part — drafting and passing the bill actually implementing the policy.
Still, Johnson and other House GOP leaders took a victory lap Tuesday night — and some thinly veiled shots at the Senate.
“We’re going to deliver the America First agenda. We’re going to deliver all of it, not just parts of it,” Johnson told reporters. He added that there’s “a lot of work ahead.”
That’s an undersell. The deep concerns that nearly derailed the budget resolution still exist. While hard-liners push for steeper cuts, centrists worry the current levels will mean significant reductions to Medicaid and other safety-net programs. Senators relate to the latter.
“There is going to be a lot of concern about the Medicaid cuts,” GOP Sen. Josh Hawley said in a brief interview.
What else we’re watching:
- Republicans meeting on spending deal: House and Senate Republican leaders will meet Wednesday to hash out a unified plan for approaching government funding negotiations with Democrats. “The best-case scenario is that we walk out united about what we need to do,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said in a brief interview. The shutdown deadline is just over two weeks away.
- Chavez-DeRemer committee vote: Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan first told POLITICO she will vote to advance Lori Chavez-DeRemer through Senate HELP on Thursday, significantly boosting Trump’s Labor secretary nominee’s chances at confirmation. Hassan is the first Democrat on the HELP Committee to say she will vote for Chavez-DeRemer, making up for a potential “no” vote from GOP Sen. Rand Paul.
- GOP brushing off Musk: The speaker on Tuesday brushed off Elon Musk’s attempt to interfere with his budget, saying he had “no concerns” that the tech mogul would affect his whip count. It’s the latest in a growing number of instances of GOP lawmakers breaking with Musk, but the billionaire doesn’t appear to be done wading into legislative business. Musk also suggested in recent days that a government shutdown “sounds great” — which could further complicate already delicate matters for Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune.
Jennifer Scholtes and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
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