GOP Holdouts Block Trump’s ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ From Making It Out of Budget Committee

One congressman changes his vote at the last minute, likely so that the committee can try again as early as Monday.

AP/Rod Lamkey, Jr.
Speaker Johnson at the Capitol, May 6, 2025. AP/Rod Lamkey, Jr.

President Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” is stalled in the House in what is a significant blow to Republicans’ efforts to pass large portions of his agenda, as moderate and conservative members have expressed disagreements with the legislation. 

The House Budget Committee voted 16-21 against advancing the bill, with five Republicans joining Democrats on the panel in opposing the reconciliation bill crafted with the aim of passing a majority of the president’s agenda. 

Ahead of the committee vote, Representatives Andrew Clyde, Ralph Norman, Chip Roy, and Josh Brecheen were seen as holdouts who could sink the attempts to advance the bill. 

The four House members wound up sticking with their opposition to the bill and blocking it from making it out of committee. Congressman Lloyd Smucker changed his vote at the last minute, likely so that there could be another try as early as Monday.

The committee was not expected to meet again on Friday. It was not immediately clear how Republicans plan to move forward to win over the holdouts and get the bill back on track. 

Before the vote, Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social that Republicans “must unite behind” the bill, which he said will “fix the mess that Biden and the Democrats gave us.”

The bill contains a significant portion of Mr. Trump’s agenda and was cast as a way for Republicans to get many of his priorities through Congress. Some lawmakers previously pushed to vote on two bills — one to get an easy win involving border funding and another to focus on taxes, domestic energy, and spending cuts. The strategy of cobbling everything into one big bill ultimately won the day amid concerns about the narrow majority in the House and keeping Republicans together.

However, disagreements among the GOP have emerged from House members in blue states who are dissatisfied with the cap on the State and Local Tax deduction. Speaker Johnson has offered to raise the SALT cap to $30,000, up from $10,000. Yet, some New York Republicans are pushing for a much higher cap. Congressman Mike Lawler has proposed raising it to $100,000 for individuals and $200,000 for married couples. 

While Republican lawmakers from blue states want to raise the SALT deduction, conservative lawmakers said the bill does not do enough to cut spending or to implement the cuts fast enough. 

In a post on X, Mr. Roy said, “Right now, the House proposal fails to meet the moment. It does not meaningfully change spending (Medicaid expansion to able bodied, IRA subsidies). Plus many of the decent provisions and cuts, don’t begin until 2029 and beyond. That is swamp accounting to dodge real savings.”

If the bill makes it through the Budget Committee, it will go to the House Rules Committee, which will determine the rules for the House-wide debate, and then it will be considered by the full House. 

Mr. Johnson has made Memorial Day the target deadline for the bill’s passage. Despite the GOP revolt, he told reporters on Thursday, “I think we’re on schedule.”

The “one big, beautiful bill” is the latest challenge Mr. Johnson has faced in wrangling his caucus to get legislation through the chamber. 

Mr. Johnson started the year fighting to secure the speaker’s gavel again, and after some last-minute negotiating, he was able to win re-election as speaker without having to go through multiple rounds of ballots, which was seen as an indicator of whether he would be able to successfully keep the various factions in his narrow majority unified to pass Mr. Trump’s agenda.


The New York Sun

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