Washington — Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that House Republicans expect to move forward on a budget plan later this week that lays a foundation for approving President Trump’s agenda, though a budget resolution has yet to be released.
“We’ll be rolling out the details of that probably by tonight,” Johnson said at a news conference Tuesday, adding that “we are right on the schedule that we need to be on.”
Leaders in Congress have been pursuing a massive legislative package under the budget reconciliation process that would enact Mr. Trump’s agenda, including resources to bolster border security, extend some of the 2017 tax cuts, incentivize domestic manufacturing and invest in American energy, while working to trim government programs and address the debt limit. But the process has faced delays amid intraparty disagreement on how to proceed. And the stalled progress in the House has prompted the Senate to move ahead with its own proposal in recent days.
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington indicated in the House Republican conference meeting earlier Tuesday that a markup of the budget resolution would be scheduled for Thursday, Johnson said.
Meanwhile, the Senate Budget Committee is scheduled to mark up its budget resolution Wednesday and Thursday. The committee’s chairman, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, unveiled the resolution last week.
The Senate version includes border security, defense and energy priorities, leaving the tax components for a later date. Senate Republicans have generally advocated a two-bill approach, citing the complicated nature of the tax components, while House Republicans have backed a one-bill strategy to get the priorities through their divided conference.
Though the Senate had for weeks deferred to the House to kickstart the reconciliation process, frustrations came to a head among Senate Republicans last week, culminating in Graham’s announcement that they would proceed with their own plan.
Still, Johnson has repeatedly urged the Senate to let the House lead, saying Sunday that “at the end of the day, the House has to drive this process — and we will.”
“I appreciate the Senate’s zeal, we have it in the House as well,” Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But as I reminded my friend Lindsey, I have about 170 additional personalities to deal with and he’s only got 53.”
Johnson, with a razor-thin GOP majority in the lower chamber, said he’s made clear to Mr. Trump and his team that a one-bill strategy is essential, giving House Republicans the best chance to deliver on Mr. Trump’s campaign promises. That’s in part because of the difficulties posed by trying to pass two major bills under the budget reconciliation process.
Using this approach, lawmakers can bypass the 60-vote threshold typically required in the Senate in favor of a simple majority, which makes it easier to pass a bill in the upper chamber. But the final product can only include provisions dealing with taxes, spending or the debt limit. And any new spending must be paid for, while the Senate parliamentarian must also sign off on the package to confirm that the provisions have direct budgetary consequences.
The approval of a budget resolution marks the first key hurdle in the process. House Republicans had initially planned to hold a markup of the budget resolution last week, outlining a timeline to have the package on Mr. Trump’s desk before May, but pushback from budget hawks for deeper spending cuts in recent weeks has slowed the process.
The House Freedom Caucus, which has also advocated for a two-bill approach, released its own budget resolution Monday, which would allocate $200 billion for border security and defense, paired with $486 billion in spending cuts, and a proposed debt ceiling increase by $4 trillion.
Kaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.
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