House approves budget framework for Trump's 'big' bill after intense
wrangling sways GOP holdouts
[April 11, 2025]
By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans narrowly approved their budget
framework Thursday, a political turnaround after Speaker Mike Johnson
worked into the night to satisfy GOP holdouts who had refused to advance
trillions of dollars in tax breaks without deeper spending cuts.
Johnson stood with Senate Majority Leader John Thune early in the
morning at the Capitol to shore up President Donald Trump’s "big,
beautiful bill,” and they committed to seeking at least $1.5 trillion in
cuts to federal programs and services. The speaker had abruptly halted
voting Wednesday night.
“I told you not to doubt us,” Johnson, R-La., said afterward.
He acknowledged the week's economic turmoil with the financial markets
“a little unstable.” But he said the House vote was a ”big day."
The 216-214 vote pushed the budget plan forward, one more milestone for
Johnson, and next step in a lengthy process to unlock the centerpiece to
the president’s domestic agenda of tax cuts, mass deportations and a
smaller federal government. A failed vote, particularly as the economy
was convulsing over Trump’s trade wars, would have been a major setback
for the party in power in Washington. Two conservative Republicans voted
against it, as did all Democrats.
Trump, at a black-tie fundraising dinner this week, had admonished
Republicans to "stop grandstanding” on the budget.
By Thursday morning, Trump had shifted his tone.
“Biggest Tax Cuts in USA History!!! Getting close,” Trump said.
The action still leaves weeks, if not months, ahead. House and Senate
Republicans will have to turn their budget framework into bill text for
a final product. Johnson can lose only a few detractors from his slim
Republican majority at any vote along the way. Democrats, in the
minority, lack the numbers to stop the package, but they promised to
fight every step.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York said the GOP budget
plan was a “toxic scheme” that proposed the largest cuts to the Medicaid
health care program and food assistance in the nation's history, “all in
service of enacting massive tax breaks to their millionaire donors, like
Elon Musk” — referring to the billionaire businessman who is leading
Trump's cost-cutting efforts through the Department of Government
Efficiency.
Jeffries said Democrats will push back until they “bury this budget
resolution in the ground.”
Late Wednesday, the outcome was in flux. At least a dozen conservative
Republicans, if not more, were firmly against the plan. Several of them,
including members of the ultraconservative Freedom Caucus, made the
unusual move of walking across the Capitol to meet privately with Senate
GOP leaders to insist on deeper cuts.
As night fell, Johnson pulled a group of Republicans into a private
meeting room as House proceedings came to a standstill. They stayed into
the night hashing out alternatives, and were back at it in the morning.
Johnson said he spoke with Trump for about five minutes while the GOP
meeting was taking place.
“The president is very anxious for us to get this done,” Johnson said.
But House GOP conservatives, including several of those who met with
Trump this week, were concerned that the Senate GOP's blueprint,
approved last weekend, did not cut spending to the level they believe
necessary to help prevent soaring deficits.
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Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., left, and Senate Majority
Leader John Thune, R-S.D., make statements to reporters ahead of
vote in the House to pass a bill on President Donald Trump's top
domestic priorities of spending reductions and tax breaks, at the
Capitol in Washington, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott
Applewhite)
“The Math Does Not Add Up,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, had posted
earlier on social media.
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the Freedom Caucus chair, led others to
meet with the senators.
In the end, Harris, Roy and almost all the holdouts came on board.
They said they were assured by Johnson, Thune and Trump that there
would be steep cuts ahead. Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of
Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana voted “no.”
“We got as much as we could,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn. ”We
realized it was bigger than us."
Before the vote, Thune, R-S.D., tried to assure House conservatives
that many GOP senators were aligned with their pursuit of spending
reductions.
“We certainly are going to do everything we can,” Thune said.
But the details ahead will matter. Key Republican senators already
signaled their disapproval of some $800 billion in House-proposed
cuts that could hit Medicaid and other vital programs.
Johnson insisted that the health care and other services that
millions of Americans rely on, particularly Medicare, Medicaid and
Social Security, would be spared. Republicans instead are seeking to
impose new restrictions on benefits and cut what they portray as
waste, fraud and abuse, following DOGE's efforts.
A final product is expected later this spring or summer, with more
voting to come.
Central to the budget framework is the Republican effort to preserve
the tax breaks approved in 2017, during Trump's first term, while
potentially adding the new ones he promised during his 2024
campaign. That includes no taxes on tipped wages, Social Security
income and others, ballooning the price tag to some $7 trillion over
the decade.
The package also allows for more than $500 billion in budget
increases, including some $175 billion to pay for Trump's
deportation operation and as much for the Defense Department to
bolster military spending.
The plan would also raise the nation's debt limit to allow more
borrowing to pay the bills. Trump had wanted lawmakers to take the
politically difficult issue off the table. With debt now at $36
trillion, the Treasury Department has said it will run out of funds
by August.
But the House and Senate need to resolve their differences on the
debt limit, as well. The House GOP increases the debt limit to $4
trillion, but the Senate lifted it to $5 trillion so Congress would
not have to revisit the issue again until after the midterm
elections in November 2026.
To clip costs, the Senate is using an unusual accounting method that
does not count the costs of preserving the 2017 tax cuts, some $4.5
trillion, as new spending, another factor that is enraging the House
conservatives.
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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Stephen Groves, Leah
Askarinam and Matt Brown contributed to this report.
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