Happy New Year 2025

Tag: budget

Battle of the chambers: Trump budget test vote cleared in Senate as House GOP lags behind

‘Kudlow’ panelists Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, and Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., discuss delivering on President Donald Trump’s agenda.

The Senate pressed on with its effort to pass a key President Donald Trump agenda item before the Republicans in the House of Representatives get a chance to do it their way.

Republicans advanced a budget resolution in a 50-47 vote to tackle part of Trump’s goals on Tuesday night after moving it through the all-important budget committee last week.

“It’s time to act on the decisive mandate the American people gave to President Trump in November. Securing the border, rebuilding our defense, and unleashing American energy. That starts this week with passing Chairman [Sen. Lindsey Graham’s] budget. Let’s get it done,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., wrote in a post on X ahead of the vote.

MCCONNELL’S MENTAL ACUITY TARGETED BY TRUMP AFTER EX-SENATE LEADER JOINS DEMS AGAINST CABINET NOMINEES

The Senate maneuvered past a procedural hurdle on its preferred Trump budget bill after leapfrogging the House Republicans who were expected to take the lead on the process. (Getty Images / Getty Images)

The progress on the Senate GOP’s preferred two-pronged budget reconciliation approach adds fuel to the growing dispute between the upper and lower chambers on how to proceed. The House and Senate GOP’s have favored different ways to use the crucial reconciliation process to achieve Trump’s priorities quickly, and up until recent weeks, the lower chamber was expected to take the lead.

The reconciliation process lowers the threshold to advance a bill in the Senate from 60 votes to just 51. And with a 53-vote majority in the upper chamber, Republicans are poised to push policies through with only support from the GOP conference.

In the Senate Republicans’ plan, the first reconciliation bill would include Trump’s priorities for border security, fossil fuel energy and national defense. The second bill, drawn up later in the year, would focus on extending Trump’s tax policies from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). The cuts begin to expire at the end of 2025.

DEMS TORCHED OVER DOGE SECURITY CLAIMS AFTER ALLOWING ‘WIDE-OPEN’ BORDER, ‘EMPOWERING IRAN’

House Republicans have long-favored one large reconciliation bill that includes all of Trump’s agenda items, from border security to tax cuts.

However, the lower chamber failed to move before its Senate counterpart.

“I’m afraid it’s a nonstarter over here. And, you know, I’ve expressed that to him. And there is no animus or daylight between us. We all are trying to get to the same achievable objectives. And there’s just, you know, different ideas on how to get there,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., previously said of the Senate’s bill.

Johnson said the bill would be dead on arrival in the House. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Ahead of the Senate’s Tuesday test vote, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., called on Republicans to pass the House bill, “It’s time to act on ALL of the powerful mandates the American people gave to [Trump] in November: Securing the border, opening up American energy to lower costs, keeping tax rates low (including no tax on tips), strengthening our national defense, a two-year extension of the debt ceiling, and passing into law DOGE’s identified waste in government.”

“All of Trump’s priorities in one big, beautiful bill start moving when we pass [Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington’s] budget. Let’s go Make America Great Again!” Scalise added.

TRUMP AGRICULTURE PICK CONFIRMED AS PRESIDENT RACKS UP CABINET WINS

In the upper chamber, facing pressure as the Senate Budget Committee chairman, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., brought up the first bill of two in his committee last week as Trump officials stressed an urgent need for border funding to Congress. The House GOP recently moved its own large bill through committee.

Republicans in the lower chamber have held that taking on two bills as opposed to one would leave them vulnerable to failure when it comes to passing tax cuts later in the year. With a slim and sometimes unruly Republican majority, the House Republicans expect they would have better odds with a one-bill reconciliation approach.

Graham moved the budget bill through his committee last week. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Despite this, the Senate appears to be pressing forward on its two-pronged bid, setting up a potential “vote-a-rama” in the coming days.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The Senate budget vote triggered a 50-hour clock for debate on the reconciliation measure. A marathon of votes on an unlimited number of amendments is expected to follow at some point during the days-long debate. Senators can offer up as many amendments as they want to the resolution, forcing Republicans to take a large number of potentially uncomfortable votes.

As long as senators keep offering amendments, the Senate has to keep voting on them, one after another. Once the budget debate clock runs out, the Senate can vote on actually passing the reconciliation resolution.

February 19, 2025
DOGE finds nearly untraceable budget line item responsible for $4.7T in payments

The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) discovered an identification code linking U.S. Treasury payments to a budget line item, which accounts for nearly $4.7 trillion in payments which was oftentimes left blank.

“The Treasury Access Symbol (TAS) is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process),” DOGE wrote in a post on X. “In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often left blank, making traceability almost impossible. As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going.”

The agency thanked the U.S. Treasury for their work in identifying the optional field.

WHAT HAS DOGE CUT SO FAR?

According to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which is under the Treasury, TAS codes are used to describe any one of the account identification codes assigned by the Treasury and is also referred to as the “account.”

All financial transactions made by the federal government are classified by TAS when reporting to the Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

The discovery was announced on the same day DOGE appeared to have populated the DOGE.gov Savings page, which, as of Monday evening, said the total estimated savings since the establishment of the department total about $55 billion.

DOGE PUTS DEI ON CHOPPING BLOCK WITH TERMINATION OF OVER $370M IN EDUCATION DEPARTMENT GRANTS

President Donald Trump and DOGE head Elon Musk address attempts to portray a rivalry between the pair on a ‘Hannity’ exclusive, airing Tuesday, February 18. (Fox News)

The savings are a combination of “fraud detection/deletion, contract/lease cancellations, contract/lease renegotiations, asset sales, grant cancellations, workforce reductions, programmatic changes, and regulatory savings.”

“We are working to upload all of this data in a digestible and fully transparent manner with clear assumptions, consistent with applicable rules and regulations,” DOGE wrote on the site, adding that the data will be updated twice per week until eventually becoming real-time.

Musk is leading DOGE to aggressively slash government waste when it comes to federal spending under President Donald Trump.

DOGE SLASHES OVER $100M IN DEI FUNDING AT EDUCATION DEPARTMENT: ‘WIN FOR EVERY STUDENT’

The Congressional DOGE Caucus now has over 100 members, Fox News Digital was told (House of Representatives/Getty)

The department was created via executive order and is a temporary organization within the White House that will spend 18 months carrying out its mission.

The group has faced criticism over its access to federal systems, including the Treasury Department’s payment system, as well as moves to cancel federal contracts and make cuts at various agencies.

Attorneys general from 14 states are suing to block DOGE from accessing federal data, arguing Musk and Trump’s administration have engaged in illegal executive overreach.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The newly formed cost-cutting agency scored a win on Friday when a federal judge in Washington declined a request to temporarily block it from accessing sensitive data from the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Fox News Digital’s Hillary Vaugh and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.

Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.

Story tips and ideas can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter @GregWehner.

February 18, 2025
Trump budget bill raising debt limit by $4T advances in House

A mammoth bill advancing a broad range of President Donald Trump’s policy goals survived a key hurdle on Thursday, putting Republicans closer to their goal of passing a bill by sometime in May.

The legislation passed the House Budget Committee on a party-line 21 to 16 vote and is expected to be taken up by the entire chamber for a floor vote later this month.

It comes despite eleventh-hour negotiations that had the bill’s eventual passage in question even as the committee met to discuss the text on Thursday morning.

The 45-page resolution directs various House committees to find a sum of at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, with $300 billion in new spending allocated toward the border, national defense and the judiciary.

BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS

Speaker Mike Johnson wants the House to advance a Trump budget bill by the end of the month. (Getty Images)

It also directs $4 trillion toward raising the debt limit, and it includes $4.5 trillion to extend Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and other tax provisions pushed by the president for the next 10 years.

House and Senate Republicans are aiming to use the budget reconciliation process to pass a broad range of Trump policy goals, from border security to eliminating taxes on tipped and overtime wages.

By lowering the threshold for passage in the Senate from two-thirds to a simple majority, it will allow the GOP to use their razor-thin majorities to get legislation signed into law with zero Democratic support, provided the measures included relate to the budget and other fiscal matters.

Conservative spending hawks on the House Budget Committee had demanded assurances that Republicans would seek to cut spending as deeply as possible in the reconciliation process, particularly to offset new spending on Trump’s tax priorities.

House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, told reporters early Thursday afternoon that committee Republicans came to an agreement on an amendment that would win over holdouts, however.

House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington ushered the bill through his committee on Thursday.

The proposal would mandate a corresponding reduction in the $4.5 trillion tax allocation if Republicans failed to cut at least $2 trillion in spending elsewhere.

Conversely, if spending cuts exceeded $2 trillion, it would increase the amount of money directed toward tax cuts by the same amount.

“The amendment that will come up is a good amendment,” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a Budget Committee fiscal hawk who had issues with the original text, told Fox News Digital. “It’s common sense. It’s doing what we said we’d be doing.”

SCOOP: KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN

The House advanced its proposal after being forced to punt the committee vote last week in the face of disagreements over where to set the baseline floor for spending cuts.

Senate Republicans advanced their own plan in the meantime, passing a narrower bill on Wednesday night that included new funding for the border and defense but would leave Trump’s tax cuts for a second package.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called that bill a “nonstarter” in the House.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham moved his own version of the bill on Wednesday (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

But while the House’s bill passed a critical test on Thursday, it’s just the first step in a long process.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Passing a budget resolution then sends instructions to other committees to seek cuts and policy changes in their respective jurisdictions, before those proposals are added back to one large bill.

The House and Senate must also agree on a compromise between their two versions and pass identical pieces of legislation before they can be sent to Trump’s desk.

Republicans have a three seat majority in the Senate and a one seat majority in the House, meaning they can afford precious little dissent among themselves to pass a final bill.

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to [email protected]

February 14, 2025
State Department omits ‘armored Tesla’ mention from 2025 budget procurement

President Donald Trump and Elon Musk unpack the goal of the Department of Government Efficiency live from the Oval Office.

As Tesla, SpaceX and now Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) leader Elon Musk has faced recent criticism for his role in the Trump administration, one of his top-earning companies seems to have been scrubbed from the State Department’s budget forecast.

The State Department released an updated version of its “Procurement Forecast Fiscal Year 2025” this week, noting that there’s a “new” requirement for “armored electric vehicles” set to receive between $100 million to $500 million in investments.

Multiple news organizations have reported that a December version of the document had the line item listed as “armored Teslas,” valued at $400 million with a five-year contract. That requirement description has since been changed.

The original line item additionally did not specify what kind of armored Tesla models would be purchased.

MUSK CLAIMS THERE ARE 150-YEAR-OLDS RECEIVING SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS

In response to the news, Musk posted on X Thursday: “I’m pretty sure Tesla isn’t getting $400M. No one mentioned it to me, at least.”

The State Department confirmed to Fox News Digital that neither Tesla nor any other automaker has been awarded a government contract for “armored electric vehicles.” (Getty Images)

A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the original generic entry should have read “electric vehicle manufacturer,” and that no government contract has been awarded to Tesla or any other automaker.

The spokesperson also said that the previous administration asked the State Department to explore interest from private companies to produce armored electric vehicles. In response to that request, a public request for information was issued to solicit interest and they received notice from only one company at that time.

As a next step in that process, the State Department spokesperson added that official solicitation would be sent out to automakers for bidding. However, the solicitation is “on hold and there are no current plans to issue it.”

According to its website, the State Department forecast is updated annually in the first quarter of the fiscal year.

Democratic Party leaders have launched profanity-laced attacks against Musk and his actions under the DOGE chair title. The budget-slashing department has targeted multiple federal agencies within the first two months of President Donald Trump taking office, including the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., shares his take on the Democratic Party’s ongoing meltdown over DOGE on ‘The Evening Edit.’

Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., said, “Elon Musk is a Nazi nepo baby, a godless lawless billionaire, who no one elected,” at a rally outside the Treasury Department, where protesters were speaking out against DOGE.

“Elon, this is the American people. This is not your trashy Cybertruck that you can just dismantle, pick apart, and sell the pieces of,” she continued.

“We are gonna be in your face, we are gonna be on your a–es, and we are going to make sure you understand what democracy looks like, and this ain’t it,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, said at the same rally.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

Dominari Financial CEO Kyle Wool analyzes Tesla and provides his outlook for Big Tech earnings on ‘Varney & Co.’

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was also in attendance and told the crowd that Musk’s DOGE efforts are “taking away everything we have.”

On Wednesday, Musk visited the Oval Office to speak with members of the press and answer questions around DOGE, where he reiterated his belief that it’s not “optional” but “essential” to cut federal spending.

READ MORE FROM FOX BUSINESS

Fox News’ Deirdre Heavey contributed to this report.

February 13, 2025
Trump budget bill faces key vote after rocky reception from House GOP

The House GOP’s proposal for a massive conservative policy overhaul has already gotten a rocky reception from Republican lawmakers, and with their current majority, Republicans will need to vote in near lock-step to pass anything without Democratic support.

“I think it’s probably going to have to be modified in some way before it comes to the floor,” House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital.

Other members of the GOP hardliner group also balked at the bill. Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., called it a “pathetic” attempt at cutting spending.

“We’ll still be accelerating towards a debt spiral,” Burlison said.

SCOOP: KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN

House Speaker Mike Johnson is navigating fraught House GOP dynamics to advance Trump’s agenda. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images, Photo by Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu via Getty Images/Fox News Channel)

House and Senate Republicans are working to use their majorities to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda via the budget reconciliation process. By reducing the threshold for passage in the Senate from two-thirds to a simple majority, which the House is already at, it allows the party in power to pass budgetary and fiscal legislation without help from the opposition.

The first step in the process is to advance a framework through the House and Senate budget committees, which then gives directions to other committees on how much funding they get to implement their relevant policy agendas.

The Senate Budget Committee approved its own plan on Wednesday night, while the House counterpart is poised to meet on their proposal Thursday morning.

It’s not immediately clear if that bill will pass, however. Four conservatives on the House Budget Committee – Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., and Josh Brecheen – did not commit to voting for the 45-page proposal backed by GOP leaders that was released on Wednesday morning.

Roy said he was “not sure” if the legislation could advance on Thursday morning when asked by Fox News Digital.

“We’ll see,” Norman said when asked if the bill would pass out of committee.

Clyde and Brecheen similarly would not say how they felt about the proposal when leaving the speaker’s office on Wednesday afternoon.

Rep. Chip Roy is one of the Budget Committee members unhappy with the bill. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

If all four voted against the legislation, it would be enough to block the resolution from advancing to the House floor.

Other conservatives also expressed reservations. Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., told Fox News Digital, “I’m not super happy with it.”

“It just doesn’t do enough to address fiscal cuts,” Crane said.

The House’s 45-page bill would mandate at least a $1.5 trillion reduction in federal spending over the next 10 years, coupled with $300 billion in new spending for border security and national defense over the same period.

It would also raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion – something Trump had demanded Republicans deal with before the U.S. runs out of cash to pay its debts, projected to happen by the spring if Congress does not act.

BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS

And while hardline conservatives wanted deeper spending cuts written into the bill, Republicans on the House Ways & Means Committee are uneasy about the $4.5 trillion allocated toward extending Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 – which expires at the end of 2025.

“Let me just say that a 10-year extension of President Trump’s expiring provisions is over $4.7 trillion according to CBO. Anything less would be saying that President Trump is wrong on tax policy,” Ways & Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., told The Hill earlier this week.

A member of the committee, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital, “I have some concerns regarding Ways & Means not being provided with the largest amount to cover President Trump’s tax cuts — especially [State and Local Tax deduction (SALT)] relief and a tax reduction for senior citizens, which are both also priorities of mine.”

Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, said he had not read the legislative text but that Smith believed the $4.5 trillion figure was “about a trillion off from where we need to be in order to make it work.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The resolution’s first big test comes at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday.

Republicans are aiming to use reconciliation to pass a broad swath of Trump’s priorities, from more funding for law enforcement and detention beds at the U.S.-Mexico border to eliminating taxes on tipped and overtime wages.

The Senate’s plan would advance border, energy, and defense priorities first while leaving taxes for a second bill.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called that plan a “nonstarter” this week, however. House leaders are concerned that leaving tax cut extensions for a second bill could allow those measures to expire before lawmakers reach an agreement.

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to [email protected]

February 13, 2025
House GOP’s budget impasse thaws just as winter storm sacks Capitol

Democrats take aim at DOGE, Elon Musk

Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports on Democrat pushback on the Department of Government Efficiency and its proposed cuts to government spending.

It is said that talk is cheap.

And that’s why House Republicans have done so much of it as they attempted to forge an internal agreement on a budget plan to slash taxes and cut spending.

It is now the middle of February. House Republicans struggled to finalize plans for what President Donald Trump terms a “big beautiful bill.” Especially when you consider all of the talking Republicans did – among themselves – since the start of the year.

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE SHARES WHAT’S NEXT FOR HOUSE DOGE PANEL, WHETHER ELON MUSK WOULD TESTIFY

House Republicans cloistered themselves for not one but two daylong sessions on Saturday, Jan. 4, and Sunday, Jan. 5, at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. That’s where House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, and Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., presented their ideas to slash spending and engineer a budget reconciliation package.

Keep that term in mind. Budget reconciliation. More on that in a moment.

Back on Capitol Hill, House Republicans convened multiple large and small meetings to lay out details on their package. That included a three-day session at President Trump’s golf club in Doral, Florida.

Republicans returned to Washington with claims of “unity.” But still no agreement.

THE CONFIRMATION JUGGERNAUT: HOW TRUMP IS GETTING EVERYTHING HE WANTS IN BUILDING HIS CABINET

Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images/File)

Arrington hoped to prepare the budget plan in his committee last week. Such a meeting would produce a “budget reconciliation” package. Budget reconciliation is a process where the Senate can bypass a filibuster and approve a bill with a simple majority. But the package must be fiscal in nature, such as addressing spending cuts and taxes. Thus, this plan likely qualifies for reconciliation. Senate Republicans must lean on budget reconciliation because they only have 53 GOP members. Not 60, which are required to break a conventional filibuster. But reconciliation is part of the annual budget process. And the reconciliation option isn’t available unless a budget blueprint is in place. No budget? No reconciliation.

House Republicans grappled last week to reach a deal. So the House GOP brass set off for the White House for a meeting with the president.

“He’s going to have to make some decisions,” said one senior House Republican of President Trump, noting he’s the only one who could help the party coalesce around an idea.

The session lasted for nearly five hours, although President Trump wasn’t in the session the entire time. Meantime, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was supposed to meet at the Capitol with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. But Netanyahu was left cooling his heels on Capitol Hill as Republicans debated plans and scribbled figures on whiteboards.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a joint meeting of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on July 24, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

“[President Trump] set the tone for us to push through some things that we were stuck on,” said Arrington when he returned to the Capitol.

“We made serious progress and have narrowed the gap to where we’re very close to getting ready to bring this to Budget Committee,” said Senate Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.

Johnson even predicted the plan may be ready later that evening. Hence, a group of Republicans retreated for another set of meetings until well after midnight.

“I’d like to see their plan,” complained Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn. “They’re not going to force me into something.”

HOUSE AND SENATE REPUBLICANS CLASH OVER MAMMOTH TRUMP BUDGET BILL SEEKING $1.5T IN CUTS

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. (Getty Images/File)

By Friday morning, Johnson was again diminishing expectations.

“It may not be today,” said Johnson.

However, the speaker hinted that the details could be ready later that weekend.

“We’ve got a few more people we’ve got to talk with and a couple more boxes to check,” said Johnson. “The expectation is it we’ll be marking up a budget next week, potentially as early as Tuesday.”

But the weekend optimism died when the speaker appeared on “Fox News Sunday.”

“We were going to do a Budget Committee markup next week. We might push it a little bit further because the details really matter,” said Johnson on Sunday. “But we’re getting very, very close.”

Johnson attended the Super Bowl in New Orleans later that day with President Trump. So could there have been a breakthrough amid the confetti, étouffée and Cooper DeJean madness of the Super Bowl?

“Are we going to have this bill this week, yes or no?” yours truly asked the speaker as he entered the Capitol on Monday afternoon.

Speaker Johnson is working to get a unified GOP effort for a reconciliation budget package for President Trump. (Getty Images)

Johnson deployed his favorite verbal placeholder.

“Stay tuned,” said the speaker, who uses this line as frequently as a 1950s radio announcer.

“You said last week we were going to have it,” I countered.

“I know,” said Johnson. “I’ve got 220 people that have shared their opinions on this.”

“Did you overpromise?” I followed up.

“No. No,” responded Johnson. “The hard work of the negotiation has to be done on the front end so that we can deliver a product that we know everybody will support.”

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tired of the House GOP’s dithering last week, wrote his own budget package, which significantly differs from what the House intends to do. While the House blueprint will focus on taxes and government cuts, Graham’s measure would boost energy production and also call for spending money to tighten the border. The South Carolina Republican has long observed that people voted for border security in the election. He argues that provision should come first.

SENATE DOGE CHAIR SAYS SHE SPEAKS WITH ELON MUSK ‘EVERY FEW DAYS’ AS TRUMP ADMIN SLASHES SPENDING

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik/File)

Johnson said he talked with Graham at the Super Bowl and “he and I are on the same page.”

When asked by CNN’s Manu Raju whether Graham’s gambit was “complicating this,” Johnson answered, “Not much.”

But when yours truly asked if the Senate moving first would help “increase the sense of urgency” in the House, the speaker responded differently.

“I wouldn’t say it’s helpful,” said Johnson.

An hour later, reporters again peppered Johnson for timing details.

“I’m not going to give a projected date yet because then you’ll tell me that I overshot,” said Johnson. “So just wait. Everybody relax.”

This entire imbroglio boils down to one factor: the math.

House Republicans currently boast 218 votes in the 433-member House. There are two vacancies. They can barely lose a vote on their side. Getting any bill across the floor is a monster.

A major snowstorm was in the forecast for Washington, D.C., on Tuesday afternoon and into the day on Wednesday. House Republican leaders huddled in the Radio/TV Gallery in the Capitol Visitor Center for their weekly press conference Tuesday morning.

“Ready for snowmageddon?” House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain, R-Mich., asked the press corps. “And the question is: Are we going to get it today or not?”

Families enjoy the snow by the Capitol, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, as they sled after a snowstorm in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

“Well, you were supposed to get a budget last week, and we didn’t,” observed your trusty reporter, drawing laughter from scribes and lawmakers alike.

At the press conference, Johnson insisted that the budget was on track. He announced that the Budget Committee would meet Thursday on the package.

But what unfolded in the news conference wasn’t nearly as interesting as what happened afterward.

Arrington hustled over to the Radio/TV Gallery to privately meet Johnson and other GOP leaders in an adjacent anteroom. Johnson and Arrington had not been on the same page with the budget. Fox is told that Arrington and Johnson had to make sure they were aligned. Arrington had pushed for deeper cuts than Johnson.

By Wednesday morning, Arrington delivered a budget blueprint. It called for $2 trillion in cuts from what’s called “mandatory spending,” like entitlements. It features $4.5 trillion in tax reductions. And it lifts the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The question now is whether House Republicans can pry a bill out of committee, let alone pass it on the floor.

But after weeks of jawboning, House Republicans finally had a budget.

And, for the record, Washington, D.C., also got snow.

About 7 inches.

Chad Pergram currently serves as a senior congressional correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.

February 13, 2025
House leaders press ahead with Trump budget bill despite GOP infighting

The House and Senate are headed for a collision course on federal budget talks as each chamber hopes to advance its own respective proposals by the end of Thursday.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday that the House Budget Committee would take up a resolution for a massive bill to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda later this week. The panel then scheduled its meeting on the matter for 10 a.m. ET on Thursday.

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, resolved to push forward with their own legislation after the House GOP missed its self-imposed deadline to kick-start the process last week.

And while the two chambers agree broadly on what they want to pass via reconciliation, they differ significantly on how to get those goals over the finish line.

BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS

Johnson is working to pass Trump’s agenda. (Getty Images)

“What’s the alternative, the Senate version?” Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., said when asked if House Republicans could come to an agreement. “When has the Senate ever given us anything conservative?”

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, caught some members of the Republican conference by surprise at their closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning when he announced to the room that his panel would be advancing a reconciliation resolution, two lawmakers told Fox News Digital.

House and Senate Republicans are aiming to use their congressional majorities to pass a massive conservative policy overhaul via the budget reconciliation process.

By reducing the Senate’s threshold for passage from two-thirds to a simple majority, where the House already operates, Republicans will be able to enact Trump’s plans while entirely skirting Democratic opposition, provided the items included relate to budgetary and other fiscal matters.

GOP lawmakers want to include a wide swath of Trump’s priorities, from more funding for border security to eliminating taxes on tipped and overtime wages.

House Republicans’ plans to advance the bill through committee last week were scuttled after fiscal hawks balked at initial proposals for baseline reductions in government spending – frustrating rank-and-file lawmakers.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington wants to advance a reconciliation bill this week. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

“This is a mechanism that needs to happen that some people are getting hung up on,” one exasperated House GOP lawmaker said. “Some people are acting as if this – you know, I appreciate they’re taking this seriously, but this is just getting the clock started.”

More recent proposals traded by the House GOP would put that minimum total anywhere between roughly $1 trillion and $2.5 trillion.

Meanwhile, the Senate’s proposal is projected to be deficit-neutral, according to a press release. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., hopes to advance it by the end of Thursday.

Johnson told reporters Tuesday that bill would be dead on arrival in the House.

“I’m afraid it’s a nonstarter over here. And, you know, I’ve expressed that to him. And there is no animus or daylight between us. We all are trying to get to the same achievable objectives. And there’s just, you know, different ideas on how to get there,” the speaker said.

SCOOP: KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN

Tensions are growing, however, with Johnson’s critics beginning to blame his leadership for the lack of a definitive roadmap.

“We’re totally getting jammed by the Senate. Leaders lead, and they don’t wait to get jammed,” Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital. “If I had somebody who was arguing with me about a top-line number, and if I was speaker, they wouldn’t be in that position anymore.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol on July 31, 2024. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

“And I would figure out a way to be resourceful working with the conference and working lines of communication, as opposed to hiding everything and then being three weeks late on the top-line number.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Johnson told reporters that details of a plan could be public as soon as Tuesday night.

The Senate’s plan differs from the House’s goal in that it would separate Trump’s priorities into two separate bills – including funding for border security and national defense in one bill, while leaving Trump’s desired tax cut extensions for a second portion.

House GOP leaders are concerned that leaving tax cuts for a second bill could leave Republicans with precious little time to reckon with them before the existing provisions expire at the end of this year.

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to [email protected]

February 11, 2025
Trump budget chief Vought to tell GOP senators $175B for border security needed ‘immediately’

FIRST ON FOX: President Trump’s newly sworn in Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russ Vought will emphasize to Republican senators the urgent need for border security funding on Tuesday, telling them an immediate $175 billion is necessary.

At a weekly Senate GOP lunch, Trump’s budget chief will speak to lawmakers, stressing that more money and resources are needed to secure the border and to continue undoing Biden-era immigration policies, a senior administration official told Fox News Digital exclusively.

NOEM, HEGSETH, BONDI PLEAD WITH CONGRESS FOR MORE BORDER FUNDING AMID LARGE-SCALE DEPORTATIONS

Vought will tell GOP senators there is a pressing need for $175 billion in border funding. (Getty Images)

In his presentation, Vought will detail what the administration requires for “robust and sustained” border security and immigration enforcement, according to the official.

Vought will explain that given Trump’s significant actions to address illegal immigration, money is running out. And for the administration to keep enforcing the new policies and conducting operations across the country, those resources must be renewed.

LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER: THE LITTLE-KNOWN TRUMP NOMINEE WHO MAY NEED TO RELY ON DEMS

A group of over 100 migrants attempting to enter the US illegally rush a border wall Thursday, March 21, 2024. In the process, the migrants knock down Texas National Guardsmen before they are halted by the border wall. (James Breeden for New York Post / Mega)

The funding being sought would go toward ramping up personnel across agencies, expanding detention capacity and reinstituting the “Remain in Mexico” program.

It would also include border wall construction and building border infrastructure, deploying innovative surveillance technology to the border, deporting migrants, military support for deportation operations, enhancing the Coast Guard’s role in border enforcement and giving state and local governments the financial and operational resources to deal with the effects of large-scale illegal immigration, per the official.

TRUMP NOMINEE TULSI GABBARD CLEARS LAST HURDLE, HEADS FOR FINAL CONFIRMATION VOTE

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (Getty Images)

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

This will be relayed to the Republican senators by Vought during the GOP lunch.

The $175 billion topline request has already been factored into Senate Committee on the Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham’s reconciliation bill, which is slated to go through the key committee this week.

Julia Johnson is a politics writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business, leading coverage of the U.S. Senate. She was previously a politics reporter at the Washington Examiner.

Follow Julia’s reporting on X at @JuliaaJohnson_ and send tips to [email protected].

February 11, 2025
Trump budget bill standoff prompts GOP rebels to mutiny House leaders

Join Fox News for access to this content

Plus special access to select articles and other premium content with your account – free of charge.

By entering your email and pushing continue, you are agreeing to Fox News’ Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive.

Please enter a valid email address.

Having trouble? Click here.

The hard-line conservative House Freedom Caucus has released its own proposal to enact President Donald Trump’s agenda via the budget reconciliation process.

The plan would pair a debt ceiling increase and increased border security funding with deep spending cuts through welfare work requirements and rollbacks on progressive Biden administration initiatives.

It’s a sign that House GOP leaders have still not found consensus within the conference on a path forward, despite ambitious plans to get a bill through the chamber at the end of the month.

House and Senate Republicans are aiming to use their congressional majorities to pass a massive conservative policy overhaul via the budget reconciliation process.

SCOOP: KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN

The House Freedom Caucus during the 118th Congress (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

By reducing the Senate’s threshold for passage from one-third to a simple majority, where the House already operates, Republicans will be able to enact Trump’s plans while entirely skirting Democratic opposition, provided the items included relate to budgetary and other fiscal matters.

GOP lawmakers want to include a wide swath of Trump priorities from more funding for border security to eliminating taxes on tipped and overtime wages.

But fiscal hawks have also demanded the package be deficit-neutral or deficit-reducing. Congressional leaders can afford little dissent with their razor-thin majorities and guaranteed lack of Democratic support.

The Freedom Caucus’s plan would follow through on conservatives’ pleas for deep spending cuts, pairing $200 billion in annual new spending for the border and national defense with $486 billion in spending cuts for the same 10-year period.

It would also include a $4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, something Trump demanded be part of Republicans’ fiscal negotiations.

Spending cuts would be found in codifying rollbacks to the Biden administration’s electric vehicle mandates and imposing Clinton administration-era work requirements for certain federal benefits, among other measures.

Republicans are working to pass President Trump’s agenda via reconciliation. (ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)

The legislation leaves out one critical component of Trump’s reconciliation goals – the extension of his 2017-era Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

House GOP leaders and Republicans on the Ways & Means Committee had pushed for them to be included alongside border security, debt ceiling, defense and energy measures in one massive reconciliation bill.

They argued that leaving them for a second bill, which the House Freedom Caucus plan would do, will allow Trump’s tax cuts to expire at the end of this year before Congress has time to act.

The two-track approach is also favored by Senate Republicans, who are moving forward with their own plan this week.

Conservatives on the House Budget Committee pushed back against GOP leaders’ initial proposals for baseline spending cuts to offset new spending in the reconciliation plan, forcing the House to punt on plans to advance a resolution through the House Budget Committee last week.

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., later announced plans to advance his own proposal through his committee by Thursday.

BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS

“”The biggest loser this weekend wasn’t at the Super Bowl, but rather the American people,” Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., told Fox News Digital. “The clock is ticking, and we are no closer to a budget deal, which is why the House Freedom Caucus released our Emergency Border Control Resolution Budget to secure our border and address Trump’s America First Agenda.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., said in a statement, “Given the current delay in the House on moving a comprehensive reconciliation bill, moving a smaller targeted bill now makes the most sense to deliver a win for the President and the American people.”

Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, said, “The American people voted for Donald Trump to see action – not for Congress to sit on its hands while our short window to pass his America-First agenda closes.”

Supporters of the two-bill approach have said it would secure early wins on issues Republicans agree most on while leaving more complex matters like tax cuts for the latter half of the year.

February 10, 2025
Dueling Trump budget bill proposals have House, Senate on collision course

House Republicans are racing to get ahead of their Senate counterparts on plans to pass sweeping conservative policy legislation and advance President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Plans to take the first step in the budget reconciliation process this week were scuttled in the House, with fiscal hawks pushing GOP leaders to raise their proposed floor for spending cuts after balking at an initial rough proposal presented last month at the House Republican issues retreat in Miami.

Meanwhile, the Senate is moving full steam ahead with their own plan to advance a budget resolution on Wednesday and Thursday. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., unveiled the upper chamber’s plan on Friday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters that same day that he was hopeful the House Budget Committee would take up the lower chamber’s resolution on Tuesday.

SCOOP: KEY CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS DRAWS RED LINE ON HOUSE BUDGET PLAN

A plan to leapfrog House Republicans on the reconciliation process was unveiled to senators on Wednesday. (Reuters)

“We’ve got a few more people we’ve got to talk with and a couple of more boxes to check, but we are almost there,” Johnson said. “The expectation is that we will be marking up a budget next week, potentially as early as Tuesday, the resolution. That will, of course, begin the process and unlock the whole reconciliation process, which I think we can wrap up in a short amount of time.”

Two House GOP lawmakers told Fox News Digital on Friday that the plan would call for a minimum of $2 trillion to $2.5 trillion in spending cuts over a period of 10 years.

Republicans plan to use their majorities in the House and Senate to pass a wide swath of Trump policy initiatives, from extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to funneling more cash to operations at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The budget reconciliation process makes that possible by lowering the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to a simple 51-seat majority. Because the House already operates on a simple majority threshold, it will allow Republicans to skirt Democratic opposition to pass their agenda — provided the measures included involve budgetary or other fiscal matters, as reconciliation rules call for.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is leading his chamber on a two-track reconciliation bill. (Getty Images)

A group of House Republicans, including Johnson, were at the White House on Thursday to discuss the process.

Trump told lawmakers he wanted the reconciliation plans to include eliminating taxes on tipped and overtime wages, no taxes on seniors, and no taxes on Social Security payments.

While they agree on the overall policies that need to pass via the reconciliation process, House and Senate Republicans differ in their preferred approach.

House Republicans are aiming to put all of Trump’s priorities on taxes, border security, energy, and defense into one large bill — complete with deep spending cuts to offset the new funding.

BLACK CAUCUS CHAIR ACCUSES TRUMP OF ‘PURGE’ OF ‘MINORITY’ FEDERAL WORKERS

House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., is among the biggest proponents of a one-bill approach. (Tom Williams)

The Senate plan, meanwhile, would split the process into two bills. The first, unveiled by Graham on Friday, includes Trump’s border, energy and defense policies. A second bill would deal with taxes.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But House GOP leaders are concerned that the intense political maneuvering the process takes will mean they run out of time before passing a second bill with Trump’s tax cuts at the end of this year.

A Ways & Means Committee memo sent earlier this year projected the average American household could see taxes rise by over 20% if those provisions expire at the end of 2025.

Trump himself has repeatedly called for “one big, beautiful bill,” but said he ultimately was not concerned about the packaging as long as all of his priorities were passed.

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.

Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to [email protected]

February 8, 2025