Senate, House Leaders Look Ahead Toward Reconciliation to Avert Future Shutdown

What Happened?

Speaker Mike Johnson helped pull off a remarkable turnaround to gain key votes from House Republicans to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda goals.

In a last-ditch effort, the House approved a budget framework 217-215 Tuesday night.

Every Democratic representative opposed the measure including GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

President Donald Trump reportedly spoke over the phone at various points with several of the previous GOP holdouts.

Speaker Johnson later said the calls were 'a big help.'

The budget adoption moves efforts closer toward passing what President Trump has called the 'big, beautiful bill.'

It focuses on border security, energy provisions, and tax cuts that he has campaigned on.

Trump’s domestic policy priorities include an extension of his 2017 tax cuts that he hopes the House and Senate agree on making permanent.

Last week, Senate leaders adopted the budget in a 52-48 vote.

But now they must reconcile the significant differences between the two budget blueprints.

Senate Republicans reportedly billed their own backup budget plan.

Why it Matters

The House advanced a prior budget resolution in a 217-211 procedural vote despite four Democrats absent and one Republican member who did not vote.

While the plan includes up to $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, it presents a $4 trillion increase in the debt limit.

Spending cuts by at least $1.5 trillion is a focus the Trump administration has taken to reduce federal spending over the next decade by $2 trillion.

Senate leaders have previously expressed in a letter that they would oppose the idea of a short-term renewal of expiring tax cuts.

Taxes would increase for Americans in every income group and nearly six million jobs would be at risk.

But a main hurdle for Congressional leaders was the proposed cuts to social services like Medicaid which raised concerns.

The Senate is reportedly looking to avoid those deep cuts to Medicaid that the House is leaning on as a major cost-cutting measure.

Meanwhile, House Republicans have presented indications of only extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts temporarily.

This could call for significant changes to the House blueprint and jeopardize the fragile measure, according to POLITICO.

Over the next decade, the Energy and Commerce Committee is asked to cut $880 billion, $330 billion from the Education and Workforce, $230 billion from agriculture, and at least $10 billion in cuts through 2034 for transportation and infrastructure.

Rep. Victoria Spartz of Indiana stated the country would still accumulate $24 trillion of additional debt on top of $36 trillion during this period, reaching $60 trillion.

How it Affects You

Large-scale layoffs have been carried out by various departments as instructed by Trump’s order led by DOGE.

House and Senate leaders must still work together to adopt identical budget resolutions ahead of a March 14 deadline to avert a government shutdown.

It could all come down again to the wire.