House Republicans Unveil $4.5 Trillion Budget Resolution, Clashing with Senate
By Thérèse Boudreaux | The Center Square
(Worthy News) – House Republicans have finally assembled a massive congressional budget resolution that includes President Donald Trump’s key agenda items and is set for a markup Thursday, but Senate Republicans have already moved forward with their own slimmer package.
Unlike the Senate budget resolution, which only includes fully offset spending on Trump’s border, defense, and energy policy, the 45-page House resolution allocates $4.5 trillion to extend the president’s 2017 tax cuts.
“This budget resolution is a key step to start the process in delivering President Trump’s America First agenda,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on X. “With nearly every House Republican directly engaged in this deliberative process, this resolution reflects our collective commitment to enacting the President’s full agenda—not just a part of it.”
He added that there will still be “ongoing debates” with the markup process happening Thursday.
The House resolution also raises the debt ceiling by $4 trillion and instructs congressional committees to find at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next ten years, only partially offsetting the tax cuts extension.
In return, the bill authorizes a $300 billion increase in mandatory spending split among the Armed Services, Homeland Security, and Judiciary committees.
The two different budget resolutions have set the two congressional chambers on a collision course since lawmakers have to coordinate on a budget resolution. While Senate Republicans think Trump’s agenda is more likely to get passed via two separate bills, their colleagues in the House believe a two-bill approach could jeopardize the tax cuts extension.
Additionally, the president has not yet publicly nudged lawmakers toward either package, only demanding that his campaign promises are enacted.
House Democrats, for their part, have condemned Johnson’s package because it requires the House Energy and Commerce Committee cut $880 billion in spending, likely meaning cuts to Medicaid and SNAP benefits.
“Republicans have now made clear they will try to take health care away from millions of hardworking Americans to give massive tax breaks to their ultra-rich friends,” Ranking Member on the committee Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., said in a statement. “This is a heartless and cruel proposal that will ruin people’s lives so the rich can get richer. It’s a Republican Rip-Off and Democrats will do everything we can to defeat it.”
Further complicating the matter, lawmakers are racing against a March 14 deadline when government funding runs out, and they have still not decided on a top-line number for the appropriations bill.