Speaker Mike Johnson told House Republicans he wants the Budget Committee to mark up a budget resolution by the end of Thursday — the first step toward passing a party-line policy package that can skirt the filibuster in the Senate.
Johnson announced his wishes inside a closed-door House GOP Conference meeting Tuesday morning, according to four people granted anonymity to share his private remarks.
While he doesn’t yet have the votes, he is pushing ahead amid increased pressure from White House officials to make real progress on advancing a reconciliation package as the midterms approach and money for the Iran war runs out.
Johnson and other GOP leaders are also working quickly to narrow the scope of their once-sprawling plans for “Reconciliation 3.0” — followups to last summer’s tax and spending megabill and the immigration enforcement measure passed in June.
Leaders are currently making plans for a framework for a reconciliation bill that would involve $67 billion for defense and $20 billion for farm aid and agriculture funding, according to five people granted anonymity to share internal discussions.
Their proposed bill also would include some components of the GOP election bill known as the SAVE America Act — largely by relying on a grant program and other incentives to encourage states to implement voter ID and citizenship requirements to cast ballots.
Johnson urged Republicans Tuesday morning to “be patient,” but he’s getting sharp pushback from rank-and-file Republicans who want more details now.
Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.), a member of the Budget Committee, made clear inside the conference meeting she would not vote to advance the budget framework until she received more information about its contours, according to the four people in the room.
Fiscal hawks are also deeply worried that the reconciliation bill would not be fully offset with spending cuts.
“I’m positive there will be pay-fors,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) said in an interview. “Or there is no path.”
Rep. August Pfluger of Texas, chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee and one of reconciliation’s biggest boosters, conceded Tuesday morning, “We really don’t have any details from leadership. We are continuing to urge them to be aggressive and be strong.”
He said he spoke up during the conference meeting to urge Republicans to do more to tackle fraud in social programs to find more cost savings.
Budget Committee Republican Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin said that if he had to bet, the budget resolution would make it out of committee by the end of the week.
“The devil’s in the details,” he said in an interview. “And I don’t think the details are worked out yet.”
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