A planned markup on House GOP leaders’ budget plan is less than 24 hours away — and they currently don’t have the votes to pass it.
The House Budget Committee released text of their one-bill proposal to tackle the border, energy and taxes Wednesday morning, which includes $1.5 trillion in minimum spending cuts. The panel plans to meet Thursday to markup and possibly vote to advance the resolution.
It was immediately panned by some hard-liners in the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, who huddled in the basement of the Capitol Wednesday afternoon to discuss it. They’re pushing for at least $500 billion in additional spending cuts, as well as work requirements for Medicaid, food aid benefits and another safety net program to be guaranteed in the resolution.
Critically, two of those skeptical conservatives sit on the panel and could tank it in committee if they side with Democrats and vote against advancing the budget resolution — and Reps. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) say they’re not on board yet.
Norman said he wants the minimum spending cuts raised from $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion — a move that GOP leaders have resisted for weeks amid pushback from Republicans in more politically competitive districts.
Norman and other Budget Committee members would push for deeper spending cuts across Medicaid, including enacting per capita caps for states, which President Donald Trump has not publicly backed. But hard-liners say the White House has been open to some Medicaid reforms.
Conservatives also want to write into the resolution the first-ever work requirements for Medicaid, and expanded work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which currently helps feed more than 40 million low-income Americans.
House Republicans have coalesced around such moves, including for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. But writing the requirements into the resolution would force committees to carry out the specific instructions, rather than allowing them to determine language on work requirements that would not alienate more vulnerable members.
Hard-liners will also push several other spending cuts during the Budget panel markup Thursday, looking to reach $2 trillion in guaranteed reductions. Norman said they would again push to rescind a swath of Inflation Reduction Act tax credits under the Ways and Means Committee jurisdiction — including biofuel incentives that Republicans in farm districts are fiercely defending.
Norman also wants to add the REINS act, which curtails federal rule-making.
