Republicans on the House Budget Committee sank President Donald Trump’s signature piece of legislation on Friday, with a quintet of hard-line Republicans voting it down in committee because the legislation doesn’t make big enough cuts to Medicaid and food stamps.
The “One Big, Beautiful, Bill” was before the committee so that Republicans could meld together all of the other GOP committees’ portions of the legislation, a critical step before it could go before the full House for a vote.
But rather than pass along the legislation—which would kick nearly 9 million people off Medicaidcause 11 million people to lose their food stampsand make college more expensive for low-income families—the bill failed to advance by a vote of 16-21, after House Freedom Caucus Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, along with Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania, voted with Democrats against the legislation.
“Well, the noes have it. Godspeed and safe travels,” Rep. Jodey Arrington, who chairs the Budget Committee, said when the vote failed, sending members home for the weekend.
This marks the first big failure for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who until now was able to keep his narrow majority together to advance what is supposed to be Trump’s signature piece of legislation—a sweeping bill that slashes aid to the poorest Americans in order to pass a tax cut that overwhelmingly favors the rich.
Related | GOP budget plans would rip health care away from millions
Signs of cracks in the GOP conference had emerged in recent days. Hard-liners, including the House Budget Committee members, began saying the bill’s cuts didn’t go far enough. Meanwhile, Republicans from New York and California pushed for the bill to increase the amount of state and local taxes—known as SALT—that taxpayers can deduct.
Republicans like Roy want to make work requirements for Medicaid recipients go into effect sooner, even though experts say such conditions are needless and lead eligible people to lose their benefits due to burdensome paperwork errors. As written, the bill delayed the work requirements until 2029, after Trump’s term expires.
“We were making progress, but the vote was called, and the problems were not resolved, so I voted no,” Roy wrote in a post on X. “I am staying in Washington this weekend to deliver. Medicaid Work requirements must start NOW not 2029 & the Green New Scam must be fully repealed, as President Trump called for.”
All that’s to say, the bill is not dead. Republicans can make changes and take a fresh vote in the House Budget Committee.
“Reps. Roy, Norman, Brecheen, Clyde and others continue to work in good faith to enact the President’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill,’” the House Freedom Caucus wrote in a post on X. “We were making progress before the vote in the Budget Committee and will continue negotiations to further improve the reconciliation package. We are not going anywhere and we will continue to work through the weekend.”
And Trump himself urged Republicans to pass it, which could twist the arms of GOP holdouts who almost always follow Dear Leader’s demands.
“Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’” Trump wrote in a post on X. “Not only does it cut Taxes for ALL Americans, but it will kick millions of Illegal Aliens off of Medicaid to PROTECT it for those who are the ones in real need. The Country will suffer greatly without this Legislation, with their Taxes going up 65%. It will be blamed on the Democrats, but that doesn’t help our Voters. We don’t need “GRANDSTANDERS” in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE! It is time to fix the MESS that Biden and the Democrats gave us. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”
However, the changes the Budget Committee Republicans want to make—including even more draconian cuts to Medicaid and food stamps—will likely not fly with Republicans in competitive districts who would get hammered at the ballot box were they to vote for the budget.
That makes the path from here look perilous for Johnson, who according to The Wall Street Journal is losing the trust of his members as he tries to negotiate with the warring factions within the GOP caucus.
Meanwhile Democrats, who have been publicly condemning the bill as a giveaway to the rich at the expense of the poor, took a victory lap when the bill failed to make it out of the Budget Committee.
„We just stopped the Republican budget bill in committee,“ Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, ranking member on the Budget Committee, wrote in a post on X. „Whether it’s adding trillions to the debt, massive giveaways to billionaires, or millions of Americans kicked off their health care, Republicans know how unpopular this bill is. We wont stop fighting back.“
Campaign Action
