The House Budget Committee voted down a budget reconciliation bill just after noon Friday in a temporary roadblock for President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
The defeat of the bill is another expected — if unnecessary — bump in the often messy negotiating process of the massive piece of legislation.
Still, the embarrassing headlines could easily have been avoided.
Conservatives on the committee made clear before the committee markup they were against the bill in its current form, stating it felt short of fully realizing Trump’s transformative agenda.
Yet Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) chose to go ahead with the scheduled markup.
Four conservatives, along with another Republican who changed his vote for procedural reasons, opposed the bill, which went down 16 to 21. The four were Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX), Ralph Norman (R-SC), Josh Brecheen (R-OK), and Andrew Clyde (R-SC).
House conservatives requested more changes in order to make a bigger, more beautiful bill. Their concerns varied from spending and taxes to Second Amendment provisions, but they also raised concerns that many of the reforms in the legislation were postponed for years and would likely be eliminated in future legislation before taking effect.
The committee is not expected to meet again today according to House Budget Committee Chairman Jody Arrington (R-TX), who voted to advance the bill despite agreeing with the no votes that the bill must be improved before final passage on the House floor — a sentiment shared by other Republicans on the committee.
But the four conservatives on the House Freedom Caucus wanted those changes made sooner rather than later. Despite voting no, they remain willing to work towards a compromise.
“We are continuing to negotiate,” a spokesperson for caucus told Breitbart News. “We are not leaving right now. We have been making progress and are continuing our work on the legislation.”
Trump posted on Truth Social Friday morning, “Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’ Not only does it cut Taxes for ALL Americans, but it will kick millions of Illegal Aliens off of Medicaid to PROTECT it for those who are the ones in real need. The Country will suffer greatly without this Legislation, with their Taxes going up 65%. It will be blamed on the Democrats, but that doesn’t help our Voters. We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE! It is time to fix the MESS that Biden and the Democrats gave us.”
Trump’s urgency is understandable, and his team continues to work with Members of Congress as the process moves forward.
The ultimate ambitious goal of sending a bill to Trump’s desk by July 4 remains achievable.
Before Friday’s vote, Mike Lee told Breitbart News exclusively that “the legislative process isn’t easy” but that Republicans working to make further changes to the bill are doing so to ensure it “advance[s] what [Trump] has laid out as what needs to be to be done, that both he and those who elected him have demanded.”
“There are some things that we need to address as we advance legislation, in order to advance President Trump’s agenda, in order to advance what he has laid out as what needs to be to be done, that both he and those who elected him have demanded,” Lee told Breitbart News.
Despite the Friday setback, few doubt the House eventually passes the bill in some form. Negotiations are likely to continue Friday and throughout the weekend.
Once the Budget Committee passes the bill, the Senate must consider it, where further changes are likely to be made, which would necessitate House passage of the Senate-amended bill or, more likely, a conference committee for further negotiations.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
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