House Republicans unveiled a long-awaited budget resolution Wednesday that would kick-start a reconciliation process to slash federal spending, extend expiring tax cuts, raise the nation’s borrowing limit and pump up border security and military funding.
But lawmakers made clear that the resolution will likely undergo rewrites at a Budget Committee markup Thursday as Republicans continue to struggle to reach consensus on a sweeping filibuster-proof package that would enact much of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.
“There’s still angst that we can actually get there,” said Utah Rep. Blake D. Moore, a Budget Committee member and vice chair of the GOP conference. “This is hard. When you see how disingenuous Democrats are in this moment . . . they start attacking members for stuff that hasn’t even been proposed yet.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., encouraged members to keep an open mind and let the resolution advance, with additional changes possible later.
“There will be ongoing debates and discussions in the coming weeks, and we remain focused on working through the process to deliver on our promises made to the American people,” Johnson said in a statement after the text was released. “There’s still much work to be done, but we are starting on the right path.”
House Budget Chairman Jodey C. Arrington, R-Texas, projected confidence after meeting with his GOP panel members Wednesday morning to go over the document.
“We’re set to mark up,” Arrington said. “I’ve got the votes…. People, I think, are very pleased with it.”
Details
As currently drafted, the blueprint calls for raising the $36.1 trillion debt limit by $4 trillion, which could put off the next battle over the federal borrowing cap until after the 2026 midterms.
At the same time, the Ways and Means Committee would be allotted $4.5 trillion over 10 years to cover the cost of extending tax cuts that expire at the end of this year (PL 115-97). And the measure also makes room for $300 billion in increased defense, border security and immigration enforcement spending.
But conservatives on the Budget panel like Chip Roy, R-Texas, want a commitment that the framework would actually reduce deficits over the next decade in exchange for their votes.
To accomplish that, House Budget Chairman Jodey C. Arrington, R-Texas, starts by laying out minimum spending cuts targets for authorizing committees totaling $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Over half of that figure goes to the Energy and Commerce Committee, with jurisdiction over Medicaid, sure to be a major flash point in the upcoming debates.
The authorizing committee instructions are as follows:
- Agriculture — reduce deficit by at least $230 billion.
- Armed Services — increase deficit by no more than $100 billion.
- Education and Workforce — reduce deficit by at least $330 billion.
- Energy and Commerce — reduce deficit by at least $880 billion.
- Financial Services — reduce deficit by at least $1 billion.
- Homeland Security — increase deficit by no more than $90 billion.
- Judiciary — increase deficit by no more than $110 billion.
- Natural Resources — reduce deficit by at least $1 billion.
- Oversight and Government Reform — reduce deficit by at least $50 billion.
- Transportation and Infrastructure — reduce deficit by at least $10 billion.
- Ways and Means — increase deficit by no more than $4.5 trillion; raise debt limit by $4 trillion.
The budget includes a nonbinding “policy statement” that says those committees should strive to exceed their targets and achieve $2 trillion in total cuts. Anything short of that figure, and the resolution says the Ways and Means panel’s $4.5 trillion in headroom for tax cuts should be reduced dollar-for-dollar, though there’s no actual mechanism for forcing that change.
Moore said authorizing committees “are going have to find more wasteful spending. We’re going to have to leverage all the DOGE work and codify that maybe into legislation. And we may not have every tax benefit that we want.”
Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., has been pushing for a $5.5 trillion number, warning that the lower level would not be sufficient to extend all tax cuts and provide new breaks sought by Trump such as exempting tips and Social Security benefits from the income tax.
“$4.5 [trillion] does not allow us to do what the president has requested, but it’s a good first step,” Smith said Wednesday.
Roy said Smith could find room for more tax cuts by including offsets in his committee’s piece of the reconciliation bill. “If that $1.5 trillion were $2.5 trillion, I’d be more comfortable with a bigger number for Ways and Means,” he said. “If Jason wants a bigger number, push for cuts.”
To make up some more of the deficit gap, Arrington assumes a higher, 2.5 percent level of economic growth over the coming decade than the Congressional Budget Office does in its baseline. That generates an extra $2.6 trillion in revenue in his budget outline.
Appropriations commitments
To round out the proposal, Arrington’s budget assumes additional cuts from nondefense discretionary spending that’s outside the scope of reconciliation and would have to be enacted separately — likely with Democratic votes, since appropriations bills aren’t subject to the same fast-track procedural protections.
“There’s some commitments that go along with all of this, to figure out where we’re going to land the plane,” Roy said. “All I care about is we deliver results on reducing the deficit.”
Roy said he wants a commitment from leadership for flat fiscal 2025 appropriations, or a cut. He said he also wants California wildfire disaster relief to be paid for with spending cuts elsewhere.
“I think if you’re spending money on defense and border this way, then I want to see appropriations that are flat or better,” Roy said. “I understand we have to navigate Democrats in the Senate, but [continuing resolutions] can navigate that if you need to, and then go figure out how to work with DOGE to eliminate waste and cut spending, use impoundment where appropriate, rescissions where appropriate.”
Roy said more conservations would take place on Wednesday ahead of the markup Thursday morning.
One addition Budget panel members said they expected was language assuming enactment of long-sought GOP legislation that would require congressional approval of any major federal regulatory expansions with an estimated economic impact of at least $100 million.
Conservatives like Roy and Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said they’d be happy with that addition even as they kept their powder dry as to how they’ll vote on Thursday.
Norman said he was waiting to see what agreements are made by leadership and what amendments are adopted before deciding how he would vote. “It’s dependent on what we add to it,” he said. “And it’s not just coming from me. It’s from others too.”
He said the rush to produce text Wednesday in time for the markup, which requires 24 hours notice, meant that “we had to get this out as a skeleton. We’ve got to fill the skeleton in. And a lot of us have some feelings, strong feelings, about what’s being included.”
Norman also said he would seek “some other assurances” that he declined to identify.
But Norman defended the provision to raise the nation’s borrowing limit by $4 trillion, which is not typically a conservative position. “It’s conservative because President Trump needs all the tools he can get to negotiate with [Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.] and having to negotiate with Democrats is not good. We’re not going to do that,” he said.
Another Freedom Caucus member, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, declined to comment on his position after meeting with other Budget members to go over the outline on Wednesday.
“What happens in committee, stays in committee,” Clyde said after the meeting.
Senate plan
Senate Republicans, meanwhile, were pushing forward on a far more limited budget resolution Wednesday that would provide $342 billion for border security and defense spending, paid for with cuts to other programs that have yet to be identified. A second budget resolution later in the year would be used for the big tax package.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the goal was to “sync up” with the House as much as possible, calling the budget resolution a starting point for negotiations.
Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., supports what the House is trying to achieve but he believes the Senate plan would deliver needed resources for the border and defense to Trump’s desk much more quickly.
“I hope they can get the one big, beautiful bill passed. And if they get it passed, I’m sure we’ll take it up, but we’re running out of money,” Graham said. “So I’m gonna come up with a plan that gets us the money for the border and defense that we desperately need yesterday, in case the one big beautiful bill doesn’t make it.”
Aidan Quigley and Paul M. Krawzak contributed to this report.
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