President Donald Trump's “One Big Beautiful Building” survived a key hurdle in the House on Sunday night, bringing him a step closer to voting across the room later this week.
It improved plans to advance the bill on Friday morning after a rebellion by four House conservatives.
House Budget Committee lawmakers were summoned to Washington for a 10pm meeting to vote again for the bill. It passed the panel with almost party-affiliated votes of 17 to 16, with four Republicans “now” votes.
R-La. Mike Johnson of the committee room just before the vote began, making a surprise appearance, and reporters said there were “minor changes” to the final bill before they disappeared into the back room with the four-person GOP holdouts who sank the bill Friday morning.
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Trump is depicted in front of the US Capitol on Friday, January 17th, 2025. (Fox News Digital/Trump-Vance Transition Team)
Johnson later expressed his confidence in another statement to reporters when the vote began. “I think what happens here is to give all our members, all Republicans, a vote that will allow us to move forward.
The speaker expected to have a “productive discussion” with various factions of House GOP, adding that he “is absolutely certain that we will obtain this in its final form and pass it on according to the original deadline.”
The committee's four conservative freedom meeting members stopped the bill from moving forward on Friday, and the Finance Hawks are seeking assurance that the crackdown on Medicaid and green energy subsidies for the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will become the final bill before a House-wide vote.
Four conservatives voted for “present” to move the debate forward on Sunday night after obtaining these assurances from House GOP leaders.
Advancement of the law through the House Budget Committee is primarily a procedural move. Lawmakers have indicated that several changes will be introduced earlier this week as amendments to the House Rules Committee, the final gatekeeper before the House-wide vote.
In particular, two of the Budget Committee's fiscal Hawks demanding further changes – representatives R-Texas, Ralph Norman, Rs.C. – Please also sit down at the House Rules Committee.
“After a lot of work and involvement over the weekend tonight, the Budget Committee has advanced a settlement bill that will build the foundation for a lot of required tax cuts, border security, and critical spending cuts and reform.
Meanwhile, Norman told Fox News Digital that four conservatives have given written assurances from the House GOP leader.
The House Budget Committee passed the framework earlier this year with “directions” for various other committees to enact Trump's policies under their jurisdiction.
After voting for the House and Senate framework, the House committee began to develop these policies. This is back to the massive bill that the House Budget Committee advanced on Sunday night.
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R-Texas Rep. Chip Roy will be seen outside the US Capitol after his final vote before the August break on Thursday, July 25th, 2024 (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, Getty Images)
Republicans are working to pass Trump's agenda via the budget settlement process. This will completely sideline the minority, in this case Democrats, while the parties that control both Congress and the White House, while passing huge amounts of laws.
This is alongside the House itself's simple majority, lowering the Senate threshold for passing from 60 to 51 votes. However, this Act must comply with a specific set of rules, including only items related to federal spending, taxes and government bonds.
Trump is using the law on Republicans to enact his campaign promises on tax cuts, immigration, energy, defense and increased debt restrictions.
And while shouting Friday's GOP rebellion is a victory for House Republican leaders, lawmakers will still have to sit through high-stakes negotiations on changes made to the bill before the House Rules Committee considers it.
Conservatives are opposed to the crackdown aspect of the law against Medicaid, which Republicans say are trimming solely for waste, fraud and abuse. However, Medicaid work requirements for healthy people are expected to begin until 2029, and conservatives argue that, among other concerns, it is a big window of time for those changes to be rescinded.
They also call for more proactive efforts to eliminate the Green Energy Tax subsidies passed by the former Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
Each push is competing against moderates who pay tribute to the massive Medicaid cuts and Republican lawmakers who have businesses in their districts that benefited from tax easing.
Meanwhile, moderates in production areas are seeking a larger state and local tax (salt) deduction cap that Red State Republicans largely rejected as subsidies for the high-tax blue state.
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But Republicans in those seats argue that it is an existential issue for their district.
But even after it passes the House, Republicans will not be able to do it on a “big, beautiful bill.” Republican senators have already shown that they are likely to make changes to the bill.
Johnson said on Fox News Sunday that House and Senate leaders are “coordinating closely” about the final product, adding that “I hope they don't make many modifications to it.”
Changes will need to go through the house again. The same bill must pass both rooms before it is signed into law by Trump.
Republican leaders say they hope to get the bill at the president's desk by July 4th.
