WASHINGTON — The Republican-controlled House Budget Committee voted to kill a broad package for President Donald Trump’s agenda on Friday, handing an embarrassing defeat to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Republican leaders.
The Budget Committee vote was 16-21, with a group of conservative hard-liners who are demanding deeper spending reductions joining all Democrats in opposition to the multitrillion-dollar bill, sending its future into doubt.
The Republicans who voted “no” included Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Andrew Clyde of Georgia and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma. Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania switched his vote to “no,” but explained that he did so as a procedural motion to permit Republicans to bring the bill up again.
At the hearing, Roy shot a warning across Republican leaders’ bows by stating he is against the bill in its current form because it will add to the deficit.
I must now scold my colleagues on this side of the aisle. This bill is deeply in short. This bill doesn’t do what we claim it does on deficits,” Roy stated.
“That’s the truth. Deficits will increase in the first half of the 10-year budget window and we all know it’s true. And we shouldn’t be doing that. We shouldn’t be claiming to be doing something we’re not doing.
“This bill has back-loaded savings and has front-loaded spending,” Roy added. “I am a no on this bill unless serious reforms are made today, tomorrow, Sunday. Something needs to change or you’re not gonna get my support.”
After the vote tally was read, Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the committee chair, adjourned the hearing and told members they would not be meeting again this weekend.
“It’s the last day of third grade. We get to go home,” Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., joked following the hearing.
But he forecast that ultimately, the bill would pass. “It has to pass,” Grothman added.
The negotiations with the GOP holdouts will resume in the coming days. The House Budget Committee said it would again meet on Sunday at 10 p.m. ET to consider the bill.
You never know until you call the question where people stand, and that’s why I called for a vote. You can’t do anything in life without having deadlines and decisions,” Arrington said in a press briefing afterward. “Today was a deadline and a decision, and it’s one of the decision points to get us to the successful passage of the reconciliation bill.
Friday’s delay will make it more challenging for Johnson to meet his Memorial Day deadline that he set for himself to pass what Trump has referred to as his “big, beautiful bill” and send it to the Senate.
But Smucker said he hopes the bill can be approved in committee by Monday, which would maintain the House schedule for approving the measure by the end of next week.
“So we’re working through some remaining issues here. There are just a few outstanding issues. I think everyone will get to yes,” Smucker said.
On X, the Freedom Caucus posted that its members will work through the weekend to work out a deal to pass the package.
“Reps. Roy, Norman, Brecheen, Clyde and others still working in good faith to pass the President’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ — we were making progress prior to the vote in the Budget Committee and will continue negotiating to further refine the reconciliation package,” the tweet from the Freedom Caucus’ account added. “We are not leaving and we will keep working over the weekend.”
The vote failed hours after Trump went to Truth Social to scold GOP “grandstanders” and call for Republicans to fall into line behind the bill.
“Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!'” Trump wrote.
“We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!” he added.
Before Friday’s committee, Republican leaders acknowledged that they would have to make adjustments for the bill to pass the House, where Republicans have a narrow majority. Besides the right’s deficit and spending objections, a small group of blue-state Republicans requested a bigger cap on the state and local tax deduction, or SALT.
Across the aisle, Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., foreshadowed the Republican splits at the beginning of the hearing, promising that all Democrats would vote against it.
You will hear throughout the course of this hearing a fierce debate. And quite frankly, there is a sharp schism between Republicans and some other Republicans. There is also a schism between both groups of Republicans and this side of the dais,” said Boyle, the senior Democrat on the budget panel. “I can address at least to why it is that every Democratic member will be voting no on the bill for billionaires.