DORAL, Florida — House GOP lawmakers are leaving their Issues Conference in Florida without a concrete plan for how to enact President Donald Trump‘s agenda.
While GOP leadership pitched the retreat as the most successful in history, some members expressed frustration over a lack of progress on how exactly Congress will pass budget reconciliation legislation by Speaker Mike Johnson’s self-imposed deadlines over the next few months.
Leadership entered the week with high hopes of having a “blueprint” for a budget process with Johnson (R-LA) saying a “bottom-up, member-driven” strategy means it will take some time to engage in “healthy discussions.”
“It’s been a very productive, constructive exercise here, and then the weeks and the months leading up to this exercise we’ve engaged in,” Johnson said during the final senior leadership press conference on Wednesday.
Johnson said that they have not decided on a figure for top-line spending, noting he wants the number on the budget resolution to be a “floor” and not a “ceiling” — but he said the top line will be “substantial.” Johnson is eyeing Feb. 24 as the deadline to pass the budget resolution that will unlock the process for reconciliation that can pass the GOP-led Senate with a simple majority, avoiding the 60-vote threshold needed for most legislation.
“We are exactly where we are supposed to be on our timetable. This is all pre-planned, and it’s coming together very well,” the speaker said, adding only 14 Republicans have not “directly engaged” in conversations.
But some hardline Republicans are raging against leadership, arguing the time spent down in Doral amounted to nothing — leaving the GOP at the same place as where they started.
“After two days at our House Republican winter retreat, we still do not have a plan on budget reconciliation and our Speaker and his team have not offered one,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) said in a post to X.
Greene, who is one of the handful of conservatives who did come to the retreat, said the conference has still not decided whether reconciliation will be done with one bill or two — the big question that even Trump has deferred on, noting he doesn’t care which method as long as it happens as quickly as possible.
“The American people demand Republicans deliver on the mandate and we should not be concerned about what CBO, who is left leaning and gets it wrong all the time, says,” Greene said, referring to the Congressional Budget Office. “We should care what the people say and they don’t care what CBO says.”
“Next time we meet, I hope to know a framework of our plan and I hope this doesn’t turn into another bill with thousands of pages dumped on us with less than 72 hours to read it all before we have to vote on the eve of another government shutdown. But why would I expect different?” the Georgia Republican added.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who did not attend the conference, said in a post he didn’t want to spend “$2K to hear more excuses.”
“The GOP ‘leadership’ is working to jam through massive deficits & criticize the [Freedom Caucus] while protecting GOP members who won’t vote to fully cut the green new deal, won’t reform Medicaid, want to water down border security, and want to subsidize high-tax blue states,” Roy wrote.
The Freedom Caucus released its “218” reconciliation proposal earlier this month pushing for a two-step approach they think can get 218 Republican votes. The proposal would cut spending and increase the debt limit by approximately $4 trillion — leaving room for a second bill that would deal with tax cuts at a later date.
And the caucus is not too pleased with the outcome of the Florida retreat.
”Are you a Republican Member of Congress leaving Miami today feeling rudderless when it comes to reconciliation? Are you worried you may be dragged into a process that will cause you to break your America First campaign promises?… Don’t worry, there’s a plan for you: the ‘218’ plan!” the Freedom Caucus wrote in a post.
However, many members — including senior House leadership — have been in favor of a one-bill solution that allows for room for leverage.
Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA) told the Washington Examiner that there are three different factions butting heads: one prioritizing debt, another focused on the border, and the third hell-bent on increasing state and local tax (SALT).
“When you do one bill, then you can kind of leverage things against each other,” Carter said. “In other words, you can leverage the border with SALT and make them come together and compromise. When you do two bills — I agree, you can get it done pretty quickly and get some wins notched up on the board, which is important — but at the same time, you lose that leverage, and that leverage is going to be extremely important when we come to extending the tax cuts.”
Members met throughout the week in different breakout sessions, spending Tuesday afternoon attending various meetings held by the House committees. During those closed-door meetings, lawmakers received lists from their respective committee chairs noting areas they believe can take spending cuts.
Many lawmakers told the Washington Examiner this week that those discussions were productive and enlightening, with rank-and-file conservatives noting that they are pleased with the outcome even without a concrete path forward.
Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX), who has served in Congress for a decade, said his only disappointment with the weekend was the rhetoric from people like Greene and Roy.
“They are saying that they didn’t want to spend [money] to come to this meeting, when in reality, our job is to represent our constituents,” Babin told the Washington Examiner. “And our constituents overwhelmingly voted for Donald J. Trump in an electoral landslide. So we gotta follow his lead.”
Babin said the comments from Roy and others who did not attend were “not helpful.”
“They were making a very, very bad mistake, and we may squander an opportunity of a little lifetime,” Babin said. “I don’t see this coming back anytime soon, where we have the trifecta of the House, the Senate, the White House — this is not going to come back anytime real soon.”
Many members have noted that the budget reconciliation process is going to be a “very difficult 60 days.” Both Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) and Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) noted Johnson’s “aggressive” timeline for the reconciliation process, with the goal to have a resolution in the Budget Committee going through markup by next week.
Scalise said that reconciliation is “never easy,” noting that over 20 Republicans voted against it in the first Trump administration.
“It still passed because we had a large margin. I don’t know if you all know this, but we have a very small margin now, and it’s going to be that way the entire way through,” Scalise quipped.
Despite holding a GOP trifecta, the House remains Trump’s biggest legislative hurdle as Republicans will hold a two-seat majority with all members seated by the time the body likely takes a vote reconciliation.
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“We have to hash out our differences, and that’s what we’re doing,” the leader added.