Washington — House GOP leaders stressed early this week that the budget package central to President Trump’s agenda remains on track even as they acknowledged a delay that comes amid simmering disagreements in the Republican conference that have threatened to stunt progress on reconciliation.
“It just made sense for us to push pause for a week to make sure that we do this right,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said Tuesday at his weekly news conference.
The committee work on budget reconciliation officially kicked off last week, as a number of panels considered their portions of the major package, which is aimed at addressing the president’s border security, defense, energy and tax priorities. But a handful of key committees have yet to schedule votes on their portions of the budget package, after Johnson said leaders made a decision to push the markups back a week, while disagreements persist over some of the most divisive elements of the forthcoming legislation — like an expansion to the state and local tax deduction and Medicaid cuts.
Johnson on Tuesday expressed confidence that the lower chamber would complete its work by Memorial Day, a day after acknowledging to reporters that he put the package on a “very ambitious time table” and that the self-imposed deadline could slip past the holiday.
“We can pass that by Memorial Day. That was our original timeframe,” he said.
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Committees face a May 9 deadline to complete their committee work under the budget resolution that the House and Senate adopted in April. But Johnson said the plan is to have committees complete their work and send the components of the bill to the House Budget Committee, which will incorporate the recommendations for the government’s spending into a massive legislative package, by the end of next week.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee had been targeting a Wednesday markup, but the panel has yet to schedule one. The House Ways and Means Committee and Agriculture Committee have yet to complete their work as well.
The Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees Medicaid, is tasked with identifying the biggest spending cuts — at least $880 billion over the next decade. The effort has become among the most closely watched in the reconciliation process, as Republicans look to dispel concerns about cuts to the popular entitlement program, stressing that they intend solely to root out waste, fraud and abuse, while some GOP hard-liners seek deeper spending cuts.
Meanwhile, disagreements over the state and local tax deduction, known as SALT, have come before the Ways and Means Committee, as conservatives oppose a push to increase the cap from Republicans in blue states. Still, Ways and Means Committee chairman Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican, said Sunday on Fox News that House Republicans will “get the job done,” adding that “failure is simply not an option.”
“We’re going to find the equilibrium point on SALT that no one will be totally delighted with, but it’ll solve the equation, and we’ll get it done,” Johnson said Monday, referring to the deduction by its acronym.
Johnson said Monday that he had spoken with Mr. Trump that day about budget reconciliation, and he noted that leadership is meeting with groups of members in the GOP conference on Tuesday as they try to push forward on the process.
At his Tuesday news conference, Johnson was asked whether he has made assurances to the moderate and conservative factions of his conference that he can’t keep.
“I don’t make promises that I can’t keep. This is a consensus building operation,” he said. “We’ve been working really hard to take all the input and find that kind of equilibrium point where everybody is at least satisfied. Some people are not going to be elated by every provision of the bill. It’s impossible. The bill is one big, beautiful bill.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican, told members in their morning meeting that they need to “focus on the totality of the bill and not just individual details,” according to Johnson.
But Scalise also alluded to the plan slipping beyond Memorial Day, telling reporters Tuesday after the Republican conference meeting that “we’re on track to continue to deliver on this one big, beautiful bill and get it through the process and ideally to get it on the president’s desk in June.”
Lawmakers also cast doubt on whether they could meet the Memorial Day deadline.
“That’s wishful thinking, I guess,” Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, said. “But you know, when I raised the speed limit in Tennessee to 70, I asked for 85. And 70 is what I wanted, so.”
Rep. Ralph Norman, a South Carolina Republican, said “the fact that we’re having the conversation is good,” but he added that “we’ve got to act.”
contributed to this report.
