House Republican leaders are preparing to release their blueprint for a third reconciliation bill as soon as Wednesday, but it appears that the legislation will be light on energy provisions, if it contains any at all.
Key lawmakers with jurisdiction over energy and environment policy said Tuesday that they have not been told to craft language for the upcoming party-line spending and tax bill, even as the House Budget Committee prepares to take the first steps in the process this week.
Asked whether the House Natural Resources Committee will play a role in developing the bill, known as “reconciliation 3.0,” Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) told POLITICO’s E&E News, “Not as it is now.”
House Energy and Commerce Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said he was still awaiting directions from House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). Johnson told House Republicans on Tuesday that the Budget panel will mark up the budget blueprint Thursday.
The omission of energy provisions would be a blow to congressional Republicans who have spent the better part of this year preparing policy proposals that they believe could play a role in the reconciliation bill — a successor to last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and the immigration enforcement package Republicans passed last month.
The legislation, which would allow the Republican majority to pass budget-related provisions without needing Democratic support, is expected to mostly focus on defense spending and agricultural aid.
Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), chair of the Republican Study Committee, had unveiled a policy framework in January that included a number of proposals to speed up the permitting process for energy projects, roll back energy efficiency standards and overhaul the federal rulemaking process — all, ostensibly, as ways to offset spending authorized by other parts of the reconciliation bill.
In June, Westerman said he expected his committee would be involved in drafting the bill. He noted that “energy is where the big pay-fors are” and said authorizations for oil and gas lease sales could be a part of his panel’s section of the legislation.
But on Tuesday, Westerman said that while his committee has a list of potential offsets ready to go, he does not expect Republican leaders will tap into them for the upcoming bill.
“Apparently there’s not going to be any pay-fors the way the bill is right now,” he said.
House GOP leaders are scrambling to craft a budget resolution so that it can get a vote on the floor before the House leaves for an extended August recess. The resolution would spell out which committees are involved, providing instructions for authorizing new spending or creating new savings.
Some top Republicans met with White House officials Tuesday to try to refine the scope of the bill after months of mostly informal discussions within the party.
Republican leadership is now envisioning a framework that would provide about $67 billion in defense spending — a Trump administration priority — as well as $11 billion in agriculture funding and farmer aid.
It is also expected to authorize a new grant program to incentivize states to implement voter ID and citizenship requirements for people to vote in federal elections.
That could assuage the concerns of President Donald Trump and some conservative lawmakers who have been demanding election security provisions akin to those in the contentious SAVE America Act.
“We’re going through a number of different ideas, and we’ll reveal the details when they’re ready to be revealed publicly,” Johnson said. “But right now, it’s member-to-member, and the White House is directly engaged, and we’re grateful for that because it’s a team effort.”
A lack of spending offsets could present problems for the bill. Some conservatives have said that in order for them to support the legislation, it must include tens of billions of dollars in pay-fors to counterbalance the proposed spending. Their votes will be critical given Republicans’ narrow majority.
“I think it’ll be a tough pill to swallow, but we’ll see,” Westerman said. He added, “I think it’s going to be an uphill battle to get this reconciliation bill done.”
Discussions on the details of the budget resolution are ongoing and could change before the end of the week, but GOP leaders are hoping to keep the bill as streamlined as possible to ensure quick passage. Only the House Administration, Agriculture, Armed Forces and Intelligence committees are expected to be involved.
“It’s an ongoing conversation,” said Pfluger.
Ameila Davidson, Kelsey Brugger, Meredith Lee Hill and Nico Portuondo contributed to this report.
