WASHINGTON — The House Budget Committee advanced President Donald Trump’s multitrillion-dollar domestic policy package Sunday night, two days after a group of conservatives voted to reject it.
The vote was 17-16 along party lines, with the four Republicans who opposed the bill in committee on Friday voting “present.”
The outcome is a positive sign for the massive party-line bill after a significant setback on Friday, but it will still need changes before securing the votes to pass the full House. And if it does, it will face plenty of challenges in the Senate, where Republicans have made clear it won’t pass without major changes.
The package includes a major spending increase for immigration enforcement and the milit, while extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts (which are slated to expire at the end of this year). It includes a series of cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and clean energy funding in order to pay for the trillions of dollars in tax cuts and new red ink.
The successful vote was a product of Republican leaders making inroads over the weekend with conservative hard-liners who said the bill fails to achieve meaningful spending cuts and will increase the U.S. deficit. Those conservatives have insisted that Medicaid work requirements take effect immediately, and the clean energy tax credits be eliminated sooner.
“I’m excited about the changes we made, and I will vote present,” one of the conservative hardliners, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said before the vote. He ignored questions from committee members on what changes he was referring to.
Norman, along with Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Andrew Clyde of rgia and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma — all voted “present.” Those four voted against the bill on Friday, preventing the bill from advancing.
The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., began by asking Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, the chairman, to be transparent with the committee on what “side deals” were struck to flip votes.
“Deliberations continue at this very moment. They will continue on into the week, and I suspect right up until we put this big, beautiful bill on the floor of the House,” Arrington said. “We’re not going to disclose the deliberations. I’m not sure I could disclose all the deliberations.”
“I don’t know anything about the side deals or any deal,” he said, while adding that there is no score on deficits and impact from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Arrington added in response to inquiries about what changed in the bill, “There are no formal or final changes.”
House GOP leaders struck an optimistic note earlier in the day.
“We’re on track, working around the clock to deliver this nation-shaping legislation for the American people as soon as possible. … This really is once in a generation opportunity that we have here,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” earlier in the day.
He said he expects the package will move to the Rules Committee by the middle of the week and to the House floor by the end of the week, so that House Republicans can meet their self-imposed Memorial Day deadline.
