Congress
House Budget Committee punts megabill vote as GOP leaders woo holdouts
House Republican leaders delayed a vote Friday morning to push their party-line tax and spending package through the Budget Committee amid ongoing GOP opposition.
To placate fiscal conservatives on the panel, Republican leaders are entertaining substantial changes to the bill before lawmakers are expected to vote on passage next week, including enforcing work requirements on Medicaid recipients earlier than the 2029 deadline in the bill and immediately revoking Medicaid benefits from undocumented immigrants. Top House GOP lawmakers plan to continue private talks with the White House and reluctant Republicans, after late-night negotiations ahead of the budget panel’s markup.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a key holdout, said during the Friday markup that “this bill falls profoundly short.”
“It does not do what we say it does with respect to deficits,” Roy said. “The fact of the matter is this bill has back-loaded savings and has front-loaded spending. … And I’m not going to sit here and say that everything is hunky-dory when this is the Budget Committee. This is the Budget Committee!”
House Republican leaders are talking to the Biden administration about imposing Medicaid work requirements in 2027 or earlier, amid reluctance among White House officials to enforce those mandates before 2029, when the current presidency is over. Reps. Andrew Clyde of Georgia and Ralph Norman of South Carolina also said Friday they opposed the bill as written.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a brief interview Friday morning that White House officials “recognize that our members want to see this moved quicker. They do too. And we’re going to get there.”
Launching the measure from the Budget Committee would not necessarily be a sign that GOP leaders are on the fast track to clearing the more than 1,100-page package they have officially named the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” at President Donald Trump’s suggestion. In 2022, for example, it took Democrats more than 10 months to achieve final passage of their own behemoth party-line package, the Inflation Reduction Act, after the House Budget Committee approved an initial version in the summer of 2021.
Now, Democrats are reveling in the GOP discord over the megabill key to delivering on Trump’s biggest campaign-trail promises.
“There is a strong divide between Republicans and some other Republicans,” Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee, said during the Friday markup, prompting laughter throughout the room.
The House Budget Committee’s vote is a necessary — but largely performative — step that bundles the 11 different bills Republicans have approved over the last few weeks through their policy committees, including the piece the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee advanced this week and the measure the Energy and Commerce Committee approved after an all-night markup of Medicaid policies forecast to strip health care coverage from more than 10 million people.
Fiscal conservatives voiced disappointment Friday that the package doesn’t include deeper spending cuts or slash tax benefits to low-income households.
“This is not the big, beautiful bill that I had hoped for,” Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) said during the markup. “The flaw with this bill is it doesn’t go far enough, fast enough, to get our fiscal house in order. But it does take some great strides.”
Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) complained that “too many people out here did not want the wonderful bill that so many of us were expecting in January and February.”
Republican leaders’ decision to enforce work requirements on Medicaid recipients in 2029, rather than sooner, “indicates that there was kind of a lack of sincerity,” Grothman added. “Nevertheless, there’s some good things in here.”
Before delaying the approval vote on Friday, House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) called the bill the key to “advancing the full ‘America first’ agenda, realizing President Trump’s vision and the House Republicans’ unwavering commitment to making America safe and prosperous again.”
Senate Republicans confirmed dozens of President Donald Trump’s nominees Friday, just before they leave for a five-week congressional recess.
Senators voted 51-47 to approve officials at the Departments of Defense, Energy, State and other agencies.
They included David Cummins to head the Transportation Security Administration, Cameron Hamilton to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Hal Duncan to be OMB deputy director and Francis Brooke to be Treasury deputy secretary. Among the group were several ambassadors, including former Rep. David Brat to be ambassador to Australia.
Senate Republicans changed the chamber’s rules last year to be able to confirm lower-level nominees as a package instead of having to hold a vote on each.
After finishing the expedited procedure Friday, Senate Republicans estimate they will only have a small number of civilian nominees awaiting confirmation.
President Donald Trump said voters may seek to punish Republicans — but not him — in the November midterm elections, as GOP lawmakers sweat that affordability concerns and the war in Iran could mean Democrats flip the House and perhaps even the Senate.
“They’re angry at Republicans,” Trump said in an interview with Punchbowl News that aired Friday. “But they’re not angry at me. They’re not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.”
The GOP faces the prospect of heavy losses this November, as gas and grocery prices remain stubbornly high due in part to the White House’s five-month-long war in Iran. The administration’s guidance on campaign trail messaging has been “tone deaf,” House Republicans fear.
Meanwhile, the president’s approval rating has tumbled since he returned to the Oval Office last year, and even his biggest supporters have grown frustrated over his Middle East war.
And with a messy, jam-packed slate of primaries now all but in the rearview mirror, Democrats are determined to go on offense. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has 58 seats on its midterm target map that stretches into redder territory — while still facing an uphill climb to take the Senate.
Trump has a massive war chest at his disposal. His MAGA Inc. super PAC reached $400 million in June. The president told Punchbowl he plans to use it to “help Republicans,” but he stressed that he faces no pressure in this campaign cycle.
“I said to somebody, ‘Wait a minute, you don’t understand, I won,’” Trump said, referencing his 2024 presidential election victory. “I’m not campaigning.”
The biggest issue for Republicans this year? That Trump himself is not on the ballot, he said.
“If I don’t run, will those people go out and vote? And that’s the one thing I can’t tell, I’m going to ask them to,” he said.
The Senate’s plan to get out of town is coming together.
Majority Leader John Thune teed up a final vote on the Russia sanctions legislation for this morning, as well as a confirmation vote for dozens of nominees and a procedural step on a stopgap funding bill.
But there’s still a number of questions that need to be answered if Thune wants to adjourn for recess by the end of the day:
— BLANCHE’S FATE: President Donald Trump’s pick for attorney general needs to secure at least one more vote to be confirmed before the break.
It looks like it’s all up to Sen. Bill Cassidy after Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced Friday morning she is opposed. Thune indicated Thursday night Blanche’s fate was uncertain and that leaders were “still working to get the final vote.”
— SAVE AMERICA ACT: Thune said to expect a vote related to the SAVE America Act as well as an initial vote on a budget blueprint for a third party-line spending bill — which includes elements of Trump’s election security legislation.
The decision to hold the budget vote comes after two Republican senators, granted anonymity to speak candidly, told Blue Light News Thursday they believed Sen. Mike Lee or another member of the GOP’s right flank would have otherwise forced a vote on the framework.
But as we’ve previously reported, Republicans don’t believe the budget resolution has the votes within the conference to be adopted — meaning the expected initial vote today will fail to clear a simple majority threshold.
And it’s not clear Lee or like-minded senators will be satisfied and allow for lawmakers to adjourn for recess without more action on the elections measure. The senator has made similar threats over the past year but has never followed through.
— TIME AGREEMENT: GOP leaders need to strike an agreement to finish other business, including passing the stopgap government funding bill and advancing a college sports bill.
At this point, any single senator could still object to expediting the chamber’s agenda, which would derail Thune’s goal of getting members out of town by the end of the day.
“We’ve been having these conversations with Democrats trying to figure out what’s the path,” Thune said.
“We’ll see how it goes,” he added.
What else we’re watching:
— GOP EXPECTS CRYPTO BILL DELAY: The Senate will leave for the chamber’s August recess without holding a vote on a landmark cryptocurrency bill, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. Thune may still file cloture on the bill, but it likely won’t come to the floor until lawmakers return to Washington next month, two of the people said.
— COLLEGE SPORTS BILL STUMBLES: Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell’s legislation to impose new guardrails on college sports is looking increasingly unlikely to hit the floor this week. Eleven senators objected to expedited consideration of the Protect College Sports Act after Thune filed cloture earlier this week, two people familiar with discussions told Blue Light News.
— OGLES OUSTED: GOP House leaders lost an incumbent — and a perennial headache — with Rep. Andy Ogles’ primary defeat in Tennessee Thursday night. His loss to former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher represents the second Trump-endorsed candidate to lose a primary this week.
Jordain Carney, Mia McCarthy, Andrew Howard and Jacob Wendler contributed to this report.
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