Vice President JD Vance and White House aides waged a full-court press on Capitol Hill Wednesday, urging House Republicans to rally behind a $95 billion reconciliation package that would fund the Iran war, farm aid and voter ID measures.
The House Budget Committee plans to mark up a fiscal 2027 budget resolution Thursday morning that would lay the groundwork for the package, but GOP support for the measure appeared shaky.
“Not sure yet,” said Budget Committee Vice Chairman Lloyd K. Smucker, R-Pa., when asked about the budget resolution’s prospects. “Check with me tomorrow at 1 o’clock.”
A defense spending boost and stringent voting requirements are top priorities of President Donald Trump. But some Republicans have questioned whether the election restrictions Trump favors, known as the SAVE America Act, would have to get watered down under the rules of budget reconciliation.
And some fiscal hawks were angry that the budget resolution makes no attempt to pay for the new spending with cuts to other programs, despite repeated talk from Republicans of wanting to use the filibuster-proof reconciliation process to curb fraud and waste.
Hoping to assuage such concerns, Vance and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., huddled with the GOP conference in the Capitol basement for a roughly 45-minute pep talk. White House legislative aides were also on hand to answer questions.
“There is nothing in this bill that every Republican in Congress cannot proudly get behind,” Johnson told reporters after the meeting, with Vance at his side. “I would say that Republicans support election integrity, our troops, and of course our farmers. And this vehicle will demonstrate all of that once again.”
Vance sought to downplay the lack of spending cuts, which he suggested could come at a later time.
“Ultimately, we decided this legislation, for a whole host of procedural reasons, was not the place in order to codify some of the things that we’re doing in the anti-fraud task force,” the vice president said. “What we’re doing with this legislation is getting SAVE America through and, of course, getting some critical support to our troops and to our farmers.”
Any attempt at large spending cuts could have raised concerns from GOP moderates in the run-up to the midterm elections.
Johnson, who intends to bring the budget resolution to the House floor next week, can’t afford to lose more than a few GOP votes in his razor-thin majority, given united Democratic opposition to the partisan measure.
But Republican fiscal hawks wasted no time in protesting the lack of spending cuts.
“My prediction? DOA,” said Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, in a post on the social platform X within minutes of the text release Wednesday morning.
Details and pitfalls
The budget resolution text would instruct four House committees to draft legislation by Sept. 11 designed to provide up to $73 billion in defense funding, along with $12 billion in farm aid. An additional $10 billion would be used to fund voter ID measures based on the SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID at the polls.
The proposal comes nowhere close to the $350 billion reconciliation request sought by Trump to support a $1.5 trillion defense budget in the coming fiscal year, a roughly 42 percent increase over this year’s level.
Without funding Trump’s full request, “that leaves about 190 billion must-haves that I don’t know how I’m going to deal with,” said House Armed Services Chairman Mike D. Rogers, R-Ala. “But … I’ll jump off that bridge when I get to it. I got to deal with one thing at a time.”
In an attempt to appease some conservative rebels, Johnson had made clear he would include at least parts of the SAVE America Act in the reconciliation bill. The precise provisions — and whether they would satisfy the rebels —won’t be known until the House Administration Committee drafts its portion of the bill.
But after the conference meeting, some Republicans continued to express doubts about the budget resolution and its prospects for adoption.
“I remain undecided,” said retiring Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the hard-line Freedom Caucus. “I think the stupidest thing to do would be to try to jam it through committee when you’ve got bigger problems on the House floor, and I think that might be the current state of affairs.”
The resolution would give four House committees instructions for drafting the reconciliation bill. The House Armed Services Committee would get the largest spending target, at $60 billion, while a trio of other committees would receive smaller allocations.
The House Intelligence Committee would receive a spending target of $13 billion, providing a total of up to $73 billion for defense-related funding when combined with the Armed Services allocation. The Agriculture Committee would be working with a target of $12 billion for farm aid, while the Administration Committee could spend up to $10 billion for election measures.
Johnson is hoping to fast-track the reconciliation package, though extended recesses in August and October complicate the path to completing a third reconciliation bill before the midterm elections in November.
The Senate’s hesitancy toward a third reconciliation bill will also become an issue if the House is able to adopt the budget resolution. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., made no commitment Wednesday to take up the resolution if it survives a House vote.
“I’ve said all along, as you know, that it’s an option, but it’s not, certainly, the only option, and it all in the end comes down to whether you have the math,” Thune said.
If passed, the pending reconciliation package would mark the third such measure in this Congress, following last year’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending law and last spring’s immigration enforcement funding package.
Valerie Yurk contributed to this report.
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