The late-night victory for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and President Donald Trump came after GOP fiscal hawks relented due to concessions from leadership related to Medicaid and clean energy policy repeals.
The Budget Committee voted the One Big Beautiful Bill Act out of committee, 17 to 16, with four voting present.
This was the committee’s second attempt to pass the bill after it failed on Friday, with five Republicans voting against the legislation, which cuts $1.5 trillion to offset the cost of preserving the president’s 2017 tax breaks. Four of the five were displeased with the legislation’s timeline for Medicaid work requirements and the ambiguity over raising the state and local taxes cap.
Republicans spoke with leadership throughout the weekend before coming back to Capitol Hill for the rare 10 p.m. committee vote. Johnson told reporters ahead of the vote that talks have “gone great” and “minor modifications” were made to the legislation.
Punchbowl News reported that leadership discussed pushing up the work requirements’ effective date from 2029 to 2026 after a strong push from the fiscal conservatives who argued the GOP was frontloading spending and backloading savings.
Heading into the vote Friday, the bill was perceived as dead on arrival in the Budget Committee given at least three of the five original detractors — Roy, Norman, and Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) — said earlier in the week they had issues with the legislation and were strongly opposed to voting for it in committee.
But Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) told reporters that Friday’s vote served as a “catalyst” to push discussions forward.
“You never know until you call the question where people stand, which is the reason I called for a vote,” Arrington said. “You can’t accomplish anything in life without having deadlines and decisions. Today was a deadline and a decision, and it’s one of the decision points to get us to the successful passage of the reconciliation bill.”
Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX), a Freedom Caucus member involved in discussions with leadership on Sunday, said many of the hangups with fiscal hawks center around the delays in work requirements and the delay of repealing certain areas of the Inflation Reduction Act.
BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL IN THE BALANCE: GOP FRACTURES OVER MEDICAID WORK REQUIREMENTS
“We’ve seen this play before, where things get kicked down the road, and so we’re not wanting to stand for it,” Cloud told the Washington Examiner.
“We’ve been working for several months, constantly doing our best to be diplomatic and give leeway for maneuverability at every single point,” he added. “But we’re to the point now to where there’s no more steps for that. Now’s the time to deliver, and so we’ve got to make sure that leadership is committed to doing that.”
The legislation now heads to the House Rules Committee, likely on Tuesday or Wednesday, where the final adjustments will be made. Johnson wants a full House vote on Thursday to meet his deadline of passage before the Memorial Day holiday.
