The republicans of the house narrowly adopt a measure to finance Trump’s agenda after the last -minute drama
After chaos and delay, the Chamber adopted the republican budgetary resolution on Tuesday to start the process to promulgate the legislative program of President Donald Trump with a vote of 217-215 – a big and critical for President Mike Johnson, who was dealing to an extremely direction of the majority GOP.
GOP leaders have successfully switched to the representatives of Tim Burchett, Warren Davidson and Victoria SPARTZ, three of the four holders. The other, representative Thomas Massie, was the only republican to vote against the resolution. The Republicans could not afford to lose a single vote.
“Lots of work still to do, but we are going to celebrate this evening, and we will find our sleeves and we will come back to it in the morning,” Johnson told journalists after the vote.
It was not clear if the Republicans would have the vote to adopt the measure Tuesday afternoon and in the evening. At least four members of the Republicans had declared that they would vote not on the plan and President Mike Johnson could afford only one defection.
The House Republicans opened their first vote Tuesday evening for more than an hour while leadership tried to compete for votes for the funding resolution and the Democrats protested.
The leaders of the GOP then briefly withdrew the budgetary resolution – the next vote of a series – from the calendar and postponed it a few minutes later and recalled the whole house to the House.
Democratic leaders were able to obtain more from their members to attend the critical vote. Representative Brittany Petterson, who is on maternity leave, appeared to vote with his son. Representative Kevin Mullin, who has a medical condition, presented himself with a walker. The Democratic leaders of the Chamber complained in a message to the Democrats that Johnson tried to “blur” the budgetary resolution after assuring them that there would be no more votes in the House for the night.
Before the vote, Johnson told journalists: “We are trying to solve concerns and problems. Many people want to assure us that we delete an appropriate amount … It is a very complicated negotiation … We will get there.”
The resolution is now going to the Senate, where this is an open question on what leadership will do with the plan. The head of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, has a different approach in the upper chamber – concentrating a bill on defense and border security expenditure and a later which would deal with tax reductions and the ceiling of The debt, although the president has fully approved the republican plan of the room.
Republicans plan to use reconciliation, a tactic that requires only a simple majority to pass. But under reconciliation, the two chambers must adopt exactly the same resolution.
“This is the first important step in the opening of the reconciliation process. We have a lot of hard work before us,” said Johnson after the vote. “We are going to deliver the first program to America. We will deliver it, not just parts of it, and this is the first step in this process.”
The Republicans relied on Trump to put pressure on the selected and the other members of the GOP who were undecided.
“The president spoke to a number of members. He made known his intentions and he wants them to vote for this and move him so that we can start the process,” said Johnson.
But Tuesday, while signing decrees in the oval office, Trump said: “I’m not involved. They know what I want.”
Chamber Mike Johnson (R-La) said remarks after the Chamber adopted the republican budget resolution on the expense bill on February 25, 2025 in the American Capitol in Washington, DC
Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images
Burchett told ABC News that he had spoken to Trump, but refused to disclose the details of the conversation.
Johnson was earlier if the vote would occur on Tuesday, suggesting that he could be pushed.
“There may be a vote tonight. There may not be any. Stay listening. This is why you are paid. Rake here,” he told journalists.
The head of the majority of the room, Steve Scalie, defended the budget – claiming that the Democrats “lie” when they claimed that the Republicans were ready to make deep cuts in Medicaid.
“This bill does not even mention the word” Medicaid “only once, and yet, all that the Democrats do on what is in the budget because they do not want to talk about the truth,” said SCALISE. “Instead of simply sitting and licking their wounds that they are completely disconnected from the American people, their only choice is to resort to what is in this vote today. There is no Medicaid In this bill.
Although the plan itself does not directly mention Medicaid, it sets an objective of at least 2 dollars of dollars in reduction of compulsory federal expenses, which includes financing for rights programs such as social security and insurance -disease.
The head of the majority of the United States, Steve Scalie, republican of Louisiana, holds a copy of the republican budgetary bill of the Chamber at a press conference after the meeting of the republican conference, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, February 25, 2025.
Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images
Johnson and his management team worked for weeks to appease concerns.
After a conference meeting on closed doors on Tuesday, Massie joked that the GOP leaders “convinced” it to vote not – predicting that the measure would in fact increase the deficit of billions of dollars.
Representative Thomas Massie speaks to journalists when she arrives for a meeting of the Republican Caucus at the American Capitol, on February 25, 2025, in Washington, DC
Andrew Harnik / Getty images
However, Johnson defended the plan.
“The objective and our commitment have always been the neutrality of the deficit. This is the goal here. If we can reduce the deficit, even better,” said Johnson, responding to the accusations that the plan increases the deficit.
Some additional Republicans were undecided, including the representative of New York, Nicole Malliotakis, stressing that she was acting in the name of her aging constituency.
“I am always indecisive, but I look more towards yes because I had a certain clarity and insurance that makes me comfortable to allow this process to move forward,” she said. “We have to make sure that leadership understands those of us who have large Medicaid populations in this process.”
Georgia Budget “Hawk budget” representative Georgia, Rich McCormick, said earlier that he was still “in discussions” on the advisability of supporting the resolution.
“I would like us to be more aggressive for spending cuts so that we can save things like Social Security, Maladie, Medicaid,” he said.
“I try to understand exactly what this implies … How this bill will affect difficult numbers, and that’s what interests me,” he said.
The Democrats of the Chamber met on the Capitol Stations Tuesday afternoon to protest against an “assault” against democracy and the “reckless republican budget”.
Hakeem Jeffries’s minority head, Hakeem Jeffries led the group of legislators, declaring that the Democrats have unified their opposition against the measure.
“So let me be clear, the Democrats of the House will not offer a single vote in this reckless republican budget, not one, not one, not one. They will not get a single democratic vote. Why? Because we vot With the American people, “he said.
Jeffries said that the GOP budget plan “represents the largest Medicaid cup in American history”, adding that “children will be devastated. Families will be devastated. People with disabilities will be devastated. Be devastated.”
“Everything that interests us is in fact. The economy is in fact. The American people,” he said.
-Abc News’ Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
