Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio on Tuesday became the latest Republican to oppose Speaker Mike Johnson’s budget plan, further imperiling the House GOP’s plans for President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda.
Johnson can afford minimal defections, and Davidson joins Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana in publicly opposing the fiscal blueprint GOP leaders want to pass Tuesday evening. Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee has also said he is leaning against supporting it.
“They convinced me in there — I’m a no,” Massie said as he left a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday.
Davidson said he was particularly frustrated with how GOP leaders were handling the impending March 14 government funding deadline.
“I’m not voting for that” without getting more details on Johnson’s plans for appropriations legislation, he said.
But Johnson’s more immediate task is moving the budget resolution, which is a necessary first step in passing the border security, tax and energy policies that Trump campaigned on.
Aside from the fiscal hawks, a separate group of more moderate Republicans is concerned about the scale of the Medicaid cuts implied by the budget plan, although some of them said Monday night they were more inclined to support Johnson after a presentation from House leaders.
Davidson is among a small group of conservative hard-liners who have grown increasingly furious as GOP leaders have pressed Republicans to support the budget plan without sharing more details about the plan for the government funding deadline that is now just over two weeks away.
Davidson left open the possibility that he may support a key procedural vote this afternoon that would set up a final budget vote. But he made clear to reporters Tuesday morning that he would oppose the resolution on the floor if he didn’t hear more from leaders about appropriations; he is pushing for additional cuts in agency spending in that separate legislation.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) offered inside the meeting to talk through funding questions with Davidson, according to people present.
Johnson faces some bleak arithmetic: No Democrats are expected to back the budget plan, and if all members are present and voting, he can lose only one Republican and still approve it.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise in an interview did not rule out delaying a planned 6 p.m. vote as they “keep talking” with holdouts. The chamber’s GOP leaders don’t want to put the budget measure on the floor if it appears like it will fail, given Senate Republicans’ eagerness to jump in and push their own competing Plan B.
Johnson told reporters after the Tuesday morning meeting that Republicans will vote on the resolution “as early as” later in the day — appearing to leave the door open for a delay.
Scalise and Johnson might get a little help: While Democratic leaders have urged their members to show up and vote to maximize the pressure on the GOP, several Democrats could be absent tonight.
Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.) recently gave birth, and Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has been frequently missing votes as he undergoes cancer treatments. Rep. Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.) could also be absent after complications from knee surgery.
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