The House approved a revised blueprint to unlock a bill for Trump’s tax cuts, border, and energy measures.
The House of Representatives on April 10 advanced the resolution that will allow Congress to move forward with President Donald Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda.
In a 216–214 vote, the lower chamber approved the Senate-passed budget blueprint, in spite of lingering concerns among some Republicans of the potential financial impact of the Senate’s instructions.
With the passage of the resolution by the lower chamber, both the House and Senate will now begin work on drafting the language—including policies, appropriations, and spending cuts—that will appear in the final package.
The passage of the resolution occurred after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was forced to pull a vote on April 9 because of GOP holdouts. Johnson could not afford to lose more than three Republicans.
The Senate passed the measure earlier this month and the resolution does not require Trump’s signature.
Reconciliation allows measures related to taxing, spending, and the national debt to pass without being subject to the 60-vote filibuster threshold.
The reconciliation bill is expected to include measures related to energy, border security, and the debt ceiling.
The resolution largely has both versions that the House and Senate passed in individual budget resolutions before leadership in both chambers agreed to a compromise budget resolution.
The House GOP holdouts expressed concerns over not enough deficit cuts and the Senate being instructed to raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion when the House instructions called for raising the borrowing limit by $4 trillion.
Also, conservative Republicans want at least $1.5 trillion in cuts over a decade, while the Senate instructions called for just $4 billion in cuts.
Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on Thursday that the goal is to have $1.5 trillion in deficit cuts.
“This process has required a lot of close consultation between the White House and the Senate, and all of that has been necessary because we want to make sure that we are delivering on our shared goals in the budget reconciliation process,” said Johnson during a press conference alongside Thune.
Trump had repeatedly called on the House GOP to pass the budget resolution.
By Jackson Richman and Joseph Lord
