Congress
Jodey Arrington says he won’t ‘squeeze’ fiscal hawks on reconciliation plan
The last time the House Budget Committee had a crucial blueprint for a high-stakes party-line bill hanging by a thread, Chair Jodey Arrington called the question — forcing his panel’s fiscal hawks to go on the record and vote down a major priority for President Donald Trump.
Arrington said Wednesday he doesn’t expect to be so bold this week, as he and top House GOP leaders seek to muscle through a fresh budget reconciliation framework.
“I don’t know that I would squeeze my guys at this point. I don’t think I would. Not right now. Not the way I did then,” the Texas Republican told reporters Wednesday. “I don’t think I’m going to need to, though.”
Arrington plans to mark up a budget resolution Thursday that would advance a $95 billion party-line package to deliver the fresh cash Trump is seeking for the Pentagon, farm assistance and more.
Just like with last year’s tax-cuts-focused megabill, several of the panel’s fiscal hawks are demanding that new spending be offset by other savings.
“There are so many ways that we can save taxpayer dollars that I’m thinking there are probably some offsets that can be included,” Rep. Ben Cline (R-Va.) said Wednesday, explaining that he wanted “to get to a place” where he could support the spending plan in committee this week.
Several other Budget Republicans, including Reps. Andrew Clyde of Georgia and Ralph Norman of South Carolina, said they were undecided on how they would vote Thursday.
But Arrington said he doesn’t think hardball tactics will be needed this time. He said he does not plan to call a vote Thursday if it becomes clear the blueprint would tank like last year.
“It was a different time and place in the process of the first big signature bill that we couldn’t fail on,” Arrington said about his move to smoke out the megabill skeptics.
“This one, it’s moving quickly. It’s been iterative, and they’ve come with me,” Arrington said about the latest party-line plan.
The incoming chair of the Senate Budget Committee said he expects a fight over paying for a new party-line spending bill as House Republicans move forward with a plan that does not offset $95 billion in proposed spending with cuts elsewhere.
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is expected to soon inherit the Budget gavel from the late Sen. Lindsey Graham — and with it a key role in managing the budget reconciliation process Republicans intend to use to sidestep Democratic opposition to their latest legislative proposals.
Johnson noted in an interview Wednesday that he has long been one of the Senate’s foremost deficit hawks and “I’ve got other members on the committee that also insist on offsets.”
“That’s the reality that I’ll have to deal with as chairman,” Johnson said. “You know, [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune’s going to have to deal with it. The White House has to deal with it. The House has to deal with it, as well.”
The House and Senate Budget committees play a key role in drafting and advancing fiscal blueprints that pave the way for party-line reconciliation bills, and Johnson could use his influence to force changes to the House proposal. He told reporters Monday, ahead of the House rollout, that identifying offsetting cuts “would certainly be one of my objectives.”
But that risks putting him at odds with Thune, who has voiced concerns that pursuing spending cuts to health care or other sensitive programs could blow back on vulnerable members just before the midterms.
The Senate Budget Committee, however, is stacked with fiscal hawks who will likely want to pay for at least part of the bill.
House GOP leaders are contending with their own band of fiscal hawks, who are upset over the lack of pay-fors included in the spending plan released Wednesday.
Johnson will come face-to-face with some of them Wednesday evening, saying that he would meet with House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) as well as the House Freedom Caucus.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole is headed to the president’s retreat at Camp David as lawmakers assemble a third party-line package that falls short of Donald Trump’s ambitious defense spending target.
Cole (R-Okla.) said he is headed to the Maryland outpost Thursday where he expects to have conversations about defense funding levels and “general things.” Cole was unsure of the full attendance list for the meeting.
Cole acknowledged Wednesday that the House GOP budget resolution released Wednesday morning comes in far under the $350 billion Trump has been calling for on Pentagon spending. The House framework included just $73 billion for defense and intelligence.
Trump has proposed a record-breaking $1.5 trillion for the overall defense budget for the coming fiscal year, and the party-line bill is seen as key to reaching that goal without needing Democratic support.
“I think they’re probably just dealing with political reality there. I haven’t gotten an explanation from them yet,” Cole said Wednesday afternoon. “I am headed out tomorrow to Camp David for a quick discussion and I’m sure that’ll be dealt with then.”
A group of select Budget Committee Republicans, Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Steve Scalise and White House officials held private meetings at Camp David earlier in the week to nail down a plan for the slimmed-down $95 billion package. Trump was not in attendance.
Budget Committee Republicans were summoned by White House officials and boarded a bus Sunday for the presidential retreat for a 24-hour marathon sprint of budget talks.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee had harsh criticism for Kathy Ruemmler, the former top counsel for Goldman Sachs, as she testified Wednesday as part of the panel’s ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaking to reporters during a break in proceedings, Democratic members of the committee questioned Ruemmler’s credibility and the nature of her ties to the late, convicted sex offender.
“Her responses have been shameful,” Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the committee’s top Democrat, told reporters. “We can all read the emails in the files about her making jokes about massages, about her making jokes about Russian women, about her making jokes about Epstein’s girls. For her to deny that there was any type of real relationship there — I don’t buy that.”
Heading into the transcribed interview Wednesday morning, House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said that Ruemmler was “the one that was with [Epstein] until the very end,” and that she worked to “rehabilitate his image.”
Committee members pressed Ruemmler inside the closed-door meeting on the content of her emails, which were released by the Justice Department months ago as part of a trove of Epstein case files, as well as on the gifts she received from Epstein and on the advice that she exchanged with him.
She’s the latest former Democratic official and Wall Street operative to appear before the Oversight panel, which has also brought in former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Ruemmler served as counsel for the Obama administration before leaving for the private sector, where she connected with Epstein while at law firm Latham & Watkins.
Ruemmler told the Oversight Committee that Epstein was a “masterful liar,” that he used her and others to legitimize himself and that it was a “mistake to deal with him,” according to a copy of her opening statement viewed by Blue Light News.
“[If] I had seen or heard any evidence suggesting that he was abusing women or girls, I would have immediately reported him,” she said, according to prepared remarks — adding that she cut ties with Epstein following his 2019 indictment.
But Democrats left the first half of her testimony unsatisfied by her claims that she did not have a friendship with Epstein. “We know that is BS,” Rep. Christian Menefee (D-Texas) told reporters.
“She’s taking no responsibility, and we’re going to continue to grill her,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) told reporters. “We don’t care if she’s a Democrat.”
A spokesperson for Ruemmler did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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