WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is facing a growing rebellion from conservative hard-liners in the House as Republicans seek to take up a budget blueprint that was recently adopted by the Senate to pass President Donald Trump’s agenda.
House GOP leaders are eyeing a vote this week on the measure, which would unlock the path for committees to craft a massive bill to cut taxes, boost immigration enforcement and defense spending and lift the debt limit without Democratic votes.
But a slew of House conservatives have blasted the Senate's version for requiring just $4 billion in spending cuts. The House's version, by contrast, called for $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in spending cuts while largely steering clear of specifics.
"Put it in writing. The Senate's got to put the math in writing, like we did ... and let us look at it," Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, said of the Senate's proposed cuts. "We've got a solid group that's a no on this," estimating that he was among 15 to 20 Republicans vowing to vote down the budget.
Those conservatives have threatened the measure's prospects in the House, where Republicans currently have a 220-213 majority and can afford just three defections. So Johnson, once again, is leaning on Trump to twist arms and push the holdouts to back the measure, a tactic that succeeded on an earlier budget resolution and a recent government funding bill.
Trump hosted key House Republican holdouts at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. A source familiar with the matter confirmed that Freedom Caucus members were among the invitees, while another source said Republicans in high-tax blue states, who want to lift the cap on the state and local tax deduction, were also invited.
Johnson also attended the meeting. Asked whether Trump was able to change any minds, he responded, “I think he did.” He went on to say, “I think we’ll be moving forward this week.”
But it's not clear to what degree the meeting moved the needle, and numerous other key holdouts said they weren't even invited to attend.
“Math still doesn’t math,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who wasn't invited to the White House meeting, said he's “still a no” on the Senate budget resolution, saying that it needs to “make some cuts” to win his vote and that he won't be content with verbal assurances.
“I gotta see something in print,” he said.
Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., said he’s leaning “no” on the measure because “it can’t pass” and has “way too many” holdouts.
“I need something that 218 people will vote for that that makes us feel like we’re going to make a substantial impact on the debt,” he said.
The intraparty clash carries elevated importance as Trump’s aggressive new tariffs have sent the stock market plummeting and raised fears of a recession, which some in the GOP argue adds to the urgency of passing new tax cuts to juice the economy.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Johnson said he plans to put the Senate budget on the House floor "this week" — before Congress departs for a two-week Easter recess — but acknowledged it will be a heavy lift. Johnson personally pitched the Freedom Caucus on the Senate blueprint at their weekly meeting on Monday night.
"We’re in the consensus-building business, as you all know," Johnson said after huddling with rank-and-file House Republicans, "and I’m working on that around the clock, have been, trying to get everybody to yes on it.”
Asked whether Trump himself will be able to rally Republicans behind the budget blueprint, Johnson said, "It will be a combination of commitments and assurances between the White House and all the leaders of both chambers."
Although Senate GOP leaders insist their $4 billion figure for spending cuts is simply a minimum and not a target, some in the House believe the chamber is scheming to avoid deficit reduction.
"It’s, frankly, a joke from the Senate, and it’s more of the same swamp stuff that we’ve been dealing with for years, and so nothing changed," Roy said earlier Tuesday. "They literally produced a budget that will have deficits going up," he added. "I didn’t come here to make deficits go up. The Senate, apparently, did."
Underneath the clash over the budget blueprint are serious divisions between Republicans about their tax-cut strategy and how deeply to reduce spending on Medicaid, the insurance program that covers millions of low-income Americans and some seniors.
The budget "reconciliation" process cannot formally begin until both chambers pass the same budget resolution. The process allows Republicans to bypass the Senate's 60-vote threshold, which is necessary because they control 53 seats in the chamber and expect unified Democratic opposition to the package.
While committees can unofficially work on policy measures in the interim, the uncertainty about the budget instructions could hinder progress until the chambers agree on a budget.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a staunch Trump ally who also was the founding chairman of the Freedom Caucus, urged his colleagues behind closed doors Tuesday to back a plan for the House and Senate to create what's known as a conference committee to negotiate their chambers' respective budgets.
But that move could delay the process by weeks.
"If we got the votes, let's go, but I don't think we do, so let's go to conference, iron it out — that's how the process works," Jordan said. "I would vote for" the Senate budget, he said, but "I don't think there's enough of our members who would vote for it, so it seems to me when you're here, they're there, you go to conference and you figure it out."
Senate Republicans urged their House counterparts to get on board with the budget plan so they could quickly move on to the next steps.
“I strongly encourage the House to follow their heart, take their brain with them and pass the Senate resolution,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., told NBC News on Tuesday. “It’s not a matter of winning or losing between the two houses. The Senate resolution is just a baby step.”
