House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) may be about to fail his first big legislative test, as hardline Republican lawmakers are still on the fence about his massive budget bill.
The Hill reported Wednesday that the House Republican budget package — which is coming up for a vote on Thursday in the House Budget Committee — may not even get past the first hurdle given the number of Republicans who are against it. Currently, six Republicans on the committee have expressed reservations about the bill. Republicans can only lose two votes if they hope to pass it to the full House for a floor vote assuming all Democratic members vote no.
"Tomorrow will be a big day," said one of the holdouts, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.). "If it doesn’t go, that puts us back at ground zero."
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Like the other holdouts, Norman is a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, which has traditionally been a thorn in Johnson's side in his attempts to corral unanimous Republican support. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) — another Freedom Caucus member who sits on the Budget Committee — told the Hill there are "four or five key variables that I still need to know the answers to." Chief among them are clean energy subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act that former President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022.
"I want to see what the specific result and whether the vast majority of those subsidies are gonna be gone, because right now I’m not getting that firm commitment yet," Roy said.
The actual legislation may change following the committee's markup session on Thursday, but the bill features $1.5 trillion in across-the-board spending cuts across nearly all federal agencies. However, Republicans are aiming to increase spending on the Southern border by appropriating an additional $300 billion for immigration enforcement and the Pentagon. When asked if he was considering making any major changes, Johnson only said he was "open to all ideas" but hadn't made any "final decisions."
Roy added that he wasn't happy about the proposed spending cuts, and argued that they should be deeper. Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) also advocated for steeper cuts, saying he was "disappointed" and a "lean no" on the legislation in its current form.
But Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) noted that because President Donald Trump has signaled he wouldn't support any cuts to Medicaid funding, he wasn't sure how Republicans would attain their desired level of spending cuts. And Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) said there were a "variety of things" in the proposed budget bill that made it unpalatable for her.
"I'm not supporting it right now," Spartz said.
Even if the bill were to make it to the full floor for a vote, Johnson can only afford a handful of defections given his razor-thin majority. Republicans narrowly kept control of the House of Representatives in November, though after the departures of former Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) his majority shrunk even further. Those seats won't be filled until an April 1 special election. And if Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) is confirmed as United Nations ambassador, Johnson's majority may dwindle to just one seat.
Click here to read the Hill's full report.