Congress
Johnson quietly shops new budget blueprint
After a series of setbacks and delays, Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday night shopped around a new budget blueprint, snatching the pen from Rep. Jodey Arrington amid mounting frustration with the House Budget Committee chair.
Johnson’s latest plan includes a new floor for spending cuts — between $1.25 trillion and $1.5 trillion — to offset part of the massive domestic policy package Republicans are now pursuing, according to four people granted anonymity to provide details on the private talks. That range of reductions is greater than what the speaker initially laid out to his conference last month but still lower than the $2.5 trillion some conservatives have been pushing for.
The level of cuts is just one of several moving pieces Johnson and other House GOP leaders are still struggling with as they try to build unity for the sweeping border, energy and tax package. They want to use special budget reconciliation procedures to pass the bill along party lines, but first they need to get Republicans almost completely united behind a budget framework, and they have already blown past an informal deadline to get that blueprint through committee.
The Senate is prepared to move forward with a competing budget plan, one Johnson strongly opposes, later this week.
In another major adjustment, the speaker’s new draft plan could give the Ways and Means Committee even less fiscal space to craft an expansive package of tax cuts. Republicans had agreed to a $4.7 trillion instruction during their White House meeting on Thursday, but that number is now expected to dip lower — a move certain to concern GOP members who are already worried they won’t be able to fit all of President Donald Trump’s tax priorities into the bill.
Johnson continued to circulate the plan with key House GOP factions late Monday, with the floor for spending cuts likely to land closer to $1.5 trillion. If those talks go well, he is expected to present the new budget plan at a closed-door House Republican Conference meeting Tuesday morning, two of the people said.
First, however, GOP leaders have to make sure their own budget chair is fully on board. During a huddle on the House floor Monday night, Johnson, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and other senior Republicans pressed Arrington on what his more conservative committee members would think of the new leadership-led plan — assuming that he’d broken the ice with the hard-line conservatives on the panel.
Arrington indicated he didn’t know, leaving some senior Republicans concerned that he wasn’t doing enough to advocate for the plan with the hard-liners. Senior Republicans also pressed Arrington on what he would say about the plan in the Tuesday morning conference meeting, given that Johnson wanted Arrington to deliver part of the presentation.
Some Republicans were worried Arrington might stir up opposition given that he’s shown sympathies toward conservative causes in private meetings. Arrington and fellow Texan Rep. Chip Roy have been privately warring against Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith and other senior Republicans in recent days over Trump’s tax cuts and how to pay for them.
“They’re very worried that they’ll present the plan and Jodey will get questions as budget chair and will not back leadership up,” a senior GOP aide said, adding: “This all stems from a leadership-Jodey Arrington beef. Jodey’s been really tough to nail down: Is he with leadership? Or is he with the rank-and-file budget members who are pushing back? Nobody can figure it out.”
A spokesperson for Arrington did not respond to inquiries Monday night.
To be sure, Johnson is not sidelining Arrington entirely. Leaders still hope to move the budget plan through his committee, perhaps as soon as this week, and they expect the chair to take the lead in ironing out key details. But they have been concerned that he’s taking too long, and with Senate Republicans moving their own bill through committee this week, some in House GOP leadership are increasingly worried about getting jammed.
They’re so fearful, in fact, that some Republicans have privately started speculating about whether they should cancel next week’s House recess to force progress on the budget — though so far there’s no indication that leadership would do so.
As recently as Friday, GOP leaders and conservatives thought they had a tentative deal to cut as much as $2 trillion in spending as part of their party-line domestic policy package. But Trump’s aversion to steep cuts across Medicaid has emerged as a sticking point behind the scenes.
GOP leaders told senior Republicans in a series of private meetings Monday that Trump wasn’t yet on board with the major Medicaid cuts it would take to secure up to an additional $800 billion in savings, according to three people familiar with the conversations who, like the others, were granted anonymity to describe the private talks.
Johnson and senior Republicans are wary of pursuing the Medicaid reforms only for Trump to publicly bash the move. GOP leaders indicated in private meetings Monday that “they need to work with Trump” on the Medicaid issue before proceeding, according to one of the people.
But Trump and his team are worried those cuts will invite political blowback. And, many House Republicans in competitive and even some safer seats are alarmed at the idea of slashing Medicaid, even if they don’t directly cut individual benefits.
“Trump’s team has said he does not want to make this bill a health care bill,” said the aforementioned senior GOP aide. “They don’t want anything too drastic on health care or savings because that becomes the talking point.”
Johnson has also been considering adding a debt limit increase back into the reconciliation plans since the White House meeting last Thursday, given a push by Trump. However, the speaker and other GOP leaders remain privately skeptical it can advance in a party-line package.
With that decision still unsettled — not to mention the parameters for spending reductions and tax cuts — senior House Republicans think it is unlikely the plan could move through the Budget Committee this week, as Johnson had hoped.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) has once again broken ranks with House Democratic leadership over endorsements, this time to support former Missouri Rep. Cori Bush over incumbent Rep. Wesley Bell.
In a post to social media Tuesday, Pressley called on voters to elect “champions” like Bush, who is in a heated primary rematch Tuesday in a contest that lays bare the party’s divide over Israel.
“Whether in Massachusetts, Michigan or Missouri, we all need politicians who fight for us, not corporations,” Pressley said. Her endorsement comes as voters head to the polls for primaries in both Michigan and Missouri, where progressive challengers are taking on moderate incumbents.
It marks the second time this primary cycle Pressley has endorsed against candidates backed by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). Last month, she joined a handful of other Congressional Black Caucus members to support Michigan state Rep. Donavan McKinney in his bid to unseat Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar.
A spokesperson for Jeffries did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pressley’s endorsement also sets her squarely against the establishment wing of the party: both Bush and McKinney have been endorsed by their local Democratic Socialists of America chapters.
But the endorsement is unsurprising: she and Bush served as members of the progressive “Squad” in the last Congress and often worked together on legislation. In a previous interview with POLITICO, Bush said she and Pressley continued to talk regularly, even after Bell unseated her in 2024.
Todd Blanche picked up an important GOP vote Tuesday for his nomination as attorney general — Sen. John Curtis of Utah — likely leaving him just one vote shy of securing confirmation.
Curtis said in a statement he plans to “support” Blanche and was pleased with the nominee’s “receptivity and understanding” of issues raised, including ending the “Anti-Weaponization Fund” created under a May settlement Blanche brokered between the IRS and President Donald Trump.
The announcement came moments after the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on party lines to advance Blanche’s nomination to the full Senate.
Crucial to that vote was Blanche agreeing in writing that the $1.8 billion payout fund was nullified and that another aspect of the settlement — an IRS audit immunity agreement — was scaled back. That gave GOP Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina enough comfort to vote for Blanche.
The remaining undecided Republican senators are Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. All three said Tuesday they are still grappling with their decisions.
“I’m still considering everything,” Collins said. “I watched part of the markup this morning to hear some of the statements, but I don’t have any decision to share with you right now.”
Murkowski declined to say how she would vote, and Cassidy told reporters that he had “nothing about Todd Blanche” to say.
Cornyn said he has already spoken with Collins and Murkowski and that additional conversations are expected.
“Senator Collins, she’s one of the most diligent individuals I know, certainly here in the United States Senate, and we had a good conversation.” Cornyn said. “She’ll have to speak for herself as to her ultimate conclusion. And I’ve also been exchanging messages with Senator Murkowski, and I know we’ll have further conversations about this.”
Jordain Carney and Calen Razor contributed to this report.
Democrats on the Budget Committee were frustrated by Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) first turn with the gavel after the new chair rebutted each of their remarks.
“Welcome to the chairmanship, but I find you are turning this into a debate committee and not a budget committee,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said during the Tuesday hearing on Medicaid.
Johnson, who took over chair after the unexpected passing of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) last month, fact checked Democrats on the committee after their allotted question time, which got on the nerves of his colleagues.
Ranking Member Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said near the end of the hearing that rebuttals by the chair aren’t “customary.”
Johnson, a frequent critic of the Medicaid program, defended his approach, which he said makes the hearings more “informative.” He sparred with Democrats on Tuesday over the impact of Medicaid cuts included in the 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as well as Medicaid fraud and spending growth.
“I keep my comments pretty short,” he said. “There are important points to be made, and I will continue to do that. I hope it doesn’t offend my Democratic colleagues, but that will be my contention here.”
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