House Republican leaders are urging their members to adopt the Senate’s version of the budget resolution that will tee up President Trump’s ambitious legislative agenda, arguing that major differences between the chambers’ instructions on spending reductions do not prevent fiscal hawks from achieving their goals of historic cuts.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter sent to members on Saturday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), and Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) are getting a head start on arguing in favor of the legislation as hardline conservative publicly balk at the Senate product.
“Adopting the Senate’s amendment to the House resolution will allow us to finally begin the most important phase of this process: drafting the reconciliation bill that will deliver on President Trump’s agenda and our promises to the American people,” they wrote in the letter.
The Senate approved its version of the budget resolution in the wee hours of Friday morning, following the House adopting their own blueprint in February. House GOP leaders hope to pass the measure next week before the chamber departs for a scheduled two-week Easter recess, with an ambitious goal of passing the final legislation before Memorial Day.
But that plan is already looking to be difficult. Fiscal hawks and hardline conservative members are publicly balking at the Senate budget resolution institutions setting a much lower minimum for cuts than the House, saying they cannot support the legislation out of skepticism that the final product would have the steep cuts they are looking for.
“If the Senate can deliver real deficit reduction in line with or greater than the House goals, I can support the Senate budget resolution,” House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) said in a statement posted to social platform X on Saturday. “However, by the Senate setting committee instructions so low at $4 billion compared to the House’s $1.5-2 trillion, I am unconvinced that will happen.”
“The Senate is free to put pen to paper to draft its reconciliation bill, but I can’t support House passage of the Senate changes to our budget resolution until I see the actual spending and deficit reduction plans to enact President Trump’s America First agenda,” he added.
Leadership, though, is arguing that adopting the budget resolution — even though it does not include those assurances on steep cuts — is only a procedural step, and that lawmakers can figure out the details later while staying on schedule.
“The Senate amendment as passed makes NO CHANGES to the House reconciliation instructions that we voted for just weeks ago,” the “Dear Colleague” letter reads. “Although the Senate chose to take a different approach on its instructions, the amended resolution in NO WAY prevents us from achieving our goals in the final reconciliation bill.”
“We have and will continue to make it clear in all discussions with the Senate and the White House that—in order to secure House passage—the final reconciliation bill must include historic spending reductions while protecting essential programs,” they added.
The budget resolution will kick off the process of crafting Trump’s “big beautiful bill” on tax cuts and border and energy priorities, which can use the special budget reconciliation process to bypass a Democratic filibuster in the Senate and pass on party lines.
The trouble, though, is getting near-unanimous support from Republicans in the House, when fiscal hawks are seeking assurances on substantial spending cuts in the early steps of the legislation.
