The House of Representatives’ Budget Committee is slated to meet Sunday night, May 18, to discuss what President Donald Trump called a “big, beautiful” budget bill. Just days before, that bill had been shot down in the same committee in a 16-21 vote.
GOP holdouts oppose the bill
As Straight Arrow News previously reported, Republicans need near unanimity to get the budget and tax package passed — but on Friday, May 16, there were some GOP holdouts, including Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. Roy said the bill isn’t doing enough about the $36.2 trillion national debt.
Another lawmaker, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said his no vote was because Medicare work requirements in the bill wouldn’t begin until 2029. Norman also said the legislation doesn’t do enough to stop states from providing Medicaid to immigrants who are in the country illegally.
According to Fox News, some of the bill’s critics were expected to meet with House GOP leaders on Sunday, before the committee meeting.
“I really need to see something in writing,” Norman said in a morning interview with Fox News Digital. “We’ve talked enough. They know where we are…if it’s the same old thing, that we can’t get [a majority], we’re going to have to pretty much stick with what we have, I’ve got a problem.”
In an appearance on Fox News, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., expressed confidence that Republicans could overcome their differences. He said that the plan is to move the legislation to the Rules Committee by midweek, and then to the full House floor by the end of the week to match lawmakers’ initial Memorial Day deadline.
What are some items in the bill?
The bill extends income tax cuts that were initially approved during Trump’s first term. It also includes new tax cuts that the president said he’d add during the 2024 election, such as no taxes on tips and overtime pay. The bill also provides money for Trump’s mass deportation effort.
The bill’s goal to save at least $880 billion over a decade would mean steep cuts, and stricter eligibility criteria for Medicaid. Food assistance programs would be affected as well.
When it comes to the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, known as SNAP, states would be responsible for 5% of benefit costs and 75% of the administrative costs starting in fiscal year 2028. Work requirements to receive food aid would change so that able-bodied adults would have to fulfill them until they are 64 instead of 54.
