Congress
The House GOP budget resolution is in trouble
Speaker Mike Johnson is staring down at least a dozen Republican holdouts on the budget blueprint he wants to put on the House floor in the coming days — and he can only afford to lose one member and still approve the resolution along party lines.
Johnson and his whip team are using the current week-long recess to ramp up engagement with undecided Republicans, including seven members — if not more — who have raised serious concerns about deep cuts to Medicaid in the House GOP budget resolution. Several other members are wary of a move to raise the debt limit as part of the plan.
In private meetings and calls with these members over the last few days, Republican leaders have argued that adopting the budget blueprint is simply the first step toward being able to craft the massive legislative package to enact President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process.
According to four people granted anonymity to share private conversations, GOP leaders are assuring members they can still debate the specifics of that package in the weeks ahead — appealing to them not to stand in the way of delivering Trump’s biggest priorities.
But the fiscal blueprint adopted by the House Budget Committee last week, to which GOP leaders negotiated a last-minute addition to appease hard-liners, would now require panels to reach a new target of $2 trillion in spending cuts to pay for the bill. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will need to cut $880 billion from programs under its purview, including Medicaid.
Many lawmakers aren’t convinced their colleagues will be able to achieve necessary savings without “significantly cutting” the safety net program, according to two Republicans aware of internal party conversations. The GOP plan to enact work requirements for Medicaid would only net about $100 billion in savings over 10 years.
The vulnerable incumbents wary of slashing Medicaid services include Reps. David Valadao of California, Nicole Malliotakis of New York, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania and others from redder districts. They were generally blindsided by the deeper level of proposed cuts, a Republican said, as that possibility never came up in earlier discussions with GOP leaders.
Now, the members want GOP leaders to explain how they’re going to cut $880 billion across Energy and Commerce programs “and not undermine the basic care provided by Medicaid as the President requested,” said another Republican aware of conversations.
Leaders are attending to concerns from other corners of their conference, too — for instance, a slice of lawmakers in high tax blue states remain wary that the budget plan doesn’t include enough room to increase the cap on a key deduction for state and local taxes in blue states.
The House GOP whip team on Monday evening called Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, along with several other remaining holdouts, to stave off opposition based on leadership’s plans to use the reconciliation bill to raise the debt limit, according to the four people familiar with the conversations. GOP leaders have said debt limit concerns among members have softened in recent weeks.
Burchett and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who also opposes raising the debt ceiling, want even deeper spending cuts across the board. Burchett is still undecided on the resolution and Massie has privately told other Republicans that he’s a “no” — though he’s pushing to include in the final bill his legislation that exempts Social Security benefits from income taxes and some Republicans feel he could be persuaded.
GOP leaders are also watching Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, who has also pressed for more spending cuts. Rep. Kat Cammack of Florida has also pushed for the reconciliation package to include her “REINS Act” that would curtail federal rule-making.
Another complication to the House GOP whip operation is that Senate Republicans are speeding ahead this week to adopt their own budget resolution. For the time being, however, fiscal hard-liners in the House appear to be standing by their promise to support Johnson’s plan on the floor rather than jump ship for the Senate’s alternative.
Some White House officials and senior House GOP aides are even quietly hoping that the added pressure of Senate action forces House Republicans to fall in line on their side of the Capitol, according to two people aware of party strategy. Trump has yet to call key holdouts in order to secure their support.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) expressed disappointment Sunday morning that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) lost his primary last week.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Khanna said of his reaction: “Sadness, disappointment. Thomas is a real friend. He’s a good man.”
Khanna and Massie are very much on opposite ends of the classic left-right ideological spectrum, but they came together to introduce the Epstein Files Transparency Act, requiring the release of files in the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. They also joined together to attempt, unsuccessfully, to block U.S. involvement in Iran.
Those efforts, as well as other votes, led President Donald Trump to repeatedly denounce Massie and campaign on behalf of Ed Gallrein, Massie’s challenger in their Kentucky congressional district. Gallrein won the primary last week with approximately 55 percent of the vote.
Speaking to host Kristen Welker, Khanna offered his analysis of Massie’s defeat.
“He was taken out for two reasons,” Khanna said. “One: He had the courage to go after some very powerful people in working with me to get the Epstein Transparency Act passed. As you mentioned, that’s historic bipartisan legislation that finally got justice for the survivors. And he had people spend millions of dollars and had the president of the United States after him.
“And second, he worked with me to stop this war in Iran. So for taking on the Epstein class and taking on war, he basically lost his state. And I admire his courage in taking those positions.”
With talk this weekend of a possible deal with Iran, Khanna said it is time for the war to come to an end.
“The answer to your question is yes. I do believe we need a negotiated deal,” he told Welker.
Rep. Tom Kean Jr., whose two-and-a-half month disappearance has stoked speculation about his health and political future, has begun more actively communicating over the phone.
On Thursday, Kean began calling Republican county chairs in his 7th Congressional District, one of the most competitive in the country in this year’s midterms. The two-term Republican also gave a “lengthy” interview to New Jersey Globe on Thursday afternoon, the first he has granted since he last voted on March 5.
Kean did not respond to a text message from Blue Light News and his voicemail was full Thursday night.
But Kean, 57, gave no details to the Globe on his undisclosed illness, which has kept him out of public view since early March. He said he’s expecting to make a full recovery, that it would not affect his cognitive health, that he plans to run for reelection and that he will publicly discuss his health at an unspecified later date.
“My doctors are confident that I’m on the road to a full recovery,” Kean told New Jersey Globe. “I understand the need for public transparency, and I appreciate the support of my constituents.”
Kean added that he plans to return to voting and campaigning in the next couple weeks. Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), chair of the House GOP’s campaign arm, told reporters Thursday he spoke to Kean and he will be back voting in June.
Kean’s lengthy absence has drawn national media attention, with reporters staking out his home in the wealthy 7th Congressional District, where he faces an extremely competitive reelection, with four Democrats competing in the June 2 primary to take him on in November. His campaign and office staff had repeatedly said that he expects to make a full recovery and would return to work “soon.”
But few people — even Kean’s two fellow New Jersey House Republicans — had recently reported speaking to him. House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters that he spoke to Kean last month.
Kean called Republican chairs in his district on Thursday.
“He sounded good to me. Sounded just as normal as always,” said Carlos Santos, the Republican chair of Union County, where Kean lives.
Santos said that he did not ask Kean about his ailment, and that Kean did not disclose it. But he said Kean confirmed he’s running for reelection and that he has his support.
Tracy DiFrancesco, the GOP chair of Somerset County, also spoke with Kean.
“It was just a simple conversation. He sounded just like Tom always sounds. He sounded perfectly fine. He’s basically back. Hopefully we’re going to see him very soon,” she said. “I think he’s doing well and we’re excited to get back on his campaign.”
Rep. Richard Hudson, chair of the House GOP’s campaign arm, told reporters Thursday he spoke to Rep. Tom Kean Jr. and he will be back voting in June.
Kean, a New Jersey Republican, has been missing from Capitol Hill since March 5 without explanation. Hudson, of North Carolina, said in an interview just a few days ago he hadn’t spoken to Kean in a while and only heard from Kean’s team that he could run for reelection.
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