On Tuesday, the GOP-led House narrowly passed a budget plan that embodies President Donald Trump’s hopes for “one big, beautiful bill” that contains part of his domestic agenda that the Republican-controlled Senate version left out.
House lawmakers voted 217-215 for a budget resolution that deals with spending in key areas such as national security and border security in addition to calling for $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and raising the debt limit by $4 trillion. It also sets the goal of reducing mandatory federal spending by $2 trillion.
Leadership won over enough GOP holdouts in negotiations that played out right up until the vote. In the end, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) was the sole Republican to join the Democrats in opposing the budget resolution.
House Republicans are “working to implement President Trump’s FULL agenda, not just part of it,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said in a post to X. “The American people are expecting us to deliver on this, and we will.”
The budget reconciliation process allows lawmakers to expedite consideration of legislation pertaining to fiscal matters. Once a resolution is adopted by both chambers of Congress, members can move on to the actual legislation. The Senate requires only a simple majority — or 51 votes — to pass a budget reconciliation bill, bypassing the three-fifths majority threshold needed to overcome a filibuster. Currently, the Senate GOP has a 53-47 majority.
However, there has been disagreement between Republicans in the House and Senate on how to proceed, as Democrats generally opposed whatever they put forward. Last week, the Senate passed its own $340 billion budget resolution that mainly focuses on border security, defense, and energy while leaving other issues, such as tax relief, to be taken up at some point in the future.
Ultimately, there will need to be a compromise. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has said he does not want to simply extend the 2017 tax cuts, which are set to expire at year’s end, but make them permanent — like what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration also wants.
Trump previously indicated a preference for the House plan, calling for “one big, beautiful bill,” but he seemed more open to either option on Tuesday.
“The House has a bill and the Senate has a bill, and I’m looking at them both, and I’ll make decisions,” Trump said. “But I don’t know where they are in the vote. I know the Senate’s doing very well, and the House is doing very well, but each one of them has things that I like, so we’ll see if we can come together.”