Republican plans to pass a sweeping budget bill with tax, energy and national security provisions could gain new momentum — or suffer a brutal setback — when the House takes up the budget resolution this week.
The Senate adopted a compromise blueprint early Saturday, and now, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) wants to put the resolution up for a final vote before members leave Washington on Thursday for a scheduled two-week recess.
But first, he and President Donald Trump will need to make sure nearly every member of their slim House majority is on board so committees can get on with writing a package using the reconciliation process. It allows the majority to pass spending-related bills by simple majority.
Republicans are not yet united on the Senate’s blueprint — which includes different instructions for House and Senate panels — and lingering concerns about a host of proposed cuts — everything from safety net programs to clean energy tax credits — could cost GOP leaders the support they need to adopt the framework and begin drafting their reconciliation bill.
Failure to adopt the resolution this week would be a major blow to Republican efforts to use the budget reconciliation process to roll back environmental regulations and potentially sell off some public lands. It could stave off the elimination of clean energy subsidies coveted by businesses and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for at least a while longer.
The resolution proposes raising the nation’s borrowing limit by up to $5 trillion and contains language that could lead to the inclusion of the “Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act,” which would require Congress to approve major rules.
“With the debt limit X-date approaching, border security resources diminishing, markets unsettled and the largest tax increase on working families looming, time is of the essence,” Johnson and other House Republican leaders said in a letter to colleagues Saturday. They reminded members of their conference that Trump has called on the House and Senate to “UNIFY.”
“The American people are counting on us, and failure is not an option,” the leaders wrote. “Let’s get this job done!”
Still, House conservatives have expressed concern over the accounting maneuver leaders are trying to use to extend the 2017 tax cuts. Some also want guarantees that the Senate will pursue significant funding cuts despite the relatively small reductions the upper chamber proposed for itself in the resolution.
House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) called the plan “unserious and disappointing” on Saturday. Other conservatives suggested over the weekend that they may not play along.
“Failure is not an option. And the Senate’s budget is a path to failure,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said on X.
Vote-a-rama amendments
The intraparty divisions were apparent in the Senate on Friday night and Saturday morning, when some Republicans crossed the aisle to support a number of Democratic amendments to the resolution.
The upper chamber adopted the budget plan 51-48 after about six hours of votes on a slew of Democratic amendments. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) voted with Democrats to oppose the resolution.
Some amendments were designed to highlight Republicans’ intentions to sell public lands, dismantle federal disaster assistance, and target clean energy and agriculture programs.
Democrats forced more than two dozen amendment votes to try to put Republicans on the record about their proposed cuts to clean energy and environment programs, among others.
Hundreds more proposed amendments, including dozens on a wide range of energy and environment issues, did not get votes.
Republicans want to secure savings and offsets for new spending by implementing restrictions on health care spending. They want to cut emissions rules, eliminate clean energy and manufacturing tax credits, sell more oil and gas production leases, and sell off some public lands.
They may try to cut billions of dollars from some Department of Energy programs, which the Trump administration is also targeting.
“Republicans are adding fuel to the fire by pushing to sell off public lands to pay for these tax cuts for the ultra wealthy,” Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said on the Senate floor early Saturday. “Our public lands are not for sale.”
He and Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), ranking member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, proposed an amendment to the budget resolution that would have prevented the use of revenues from public land sales to reduce the deficit. It was defeated 48-51, with Montana Republican Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy voting for it.
ENR Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) said that in states where the federal government owns a significant amount of land, it can be difficult to build more housing or to generate additional revenue for schools and other needs. He called the amendment “disgraceful.”
California Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla proposed a messaging amendment in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its role in providing long-term disaster assistance. The Trump administration is moving to shrink or eliminate FEMA and transfer those responsibilities to the states.
Lee said Padilla’s amendment, which highlighted the “nonpartisan” nature of FEMA’s work, “asks us to believe a lie.” He pointed to reports ofsome FEMA employees skipping over houses with Trump signage while doing recovery work in Florida following Hurricane Milton.
The amendment was rejected 48-51, with Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voting in favor of it.
A rare bipartisan amendment from Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) would have eliminated the resolution’s instructions for the House Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in deficit reductions, which could come from cuts to health programs such as Medicaid. It failed 49-50, with Hawley, Collins and Murkowski joining Democrats in support.
While the proposal was aimed at preventing those health care reductions, it could have had implications for the E&C Committee’s efforts to find other savings, namely from energy and environment programs.
One Democratic amendment would have eliminated the instructions for the House Agriculture Committee to find $230 billion in savings, namely by cutting nutrition programs. Another amendment sought to ensure that the Department of Agriculture honors contracts with farmers amid the administration’s ongoing grant cancellations.
Among the Democratic amendments that did not get a vote was a proposal from Environment and Public Works ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) to require the Congressional Budget Office to issue a report for any bill that would increase fossil fuel pollution regarding the impacts the legislation would have on home insurance premiums.
Three proposals from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) would have sought to protect federal funding for certain offshore wind projects, lead pipe replacement, and the removal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, from drinking water.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) introduced amendments to preserve clean energy manufacturing jobs and to protect incentives for clean energy projects.
Additional proposed amendments were aimed at preventing increases to Americans’ energy bills, supporting conservation and biodiversity programs, prohibiting tax breaks for major fossil fuel companies and preventing the privatization of federal flood insurance.
