President Donald Trump faced his first major legislative defeat on Friday as a handful of conservatives opposed his “One Big, Beautiful Bill” despite his attempt to rally Republicans.
The House Budget Committee convened on Friday after various committees had marked up their parts of the legislation throughout the week.
The defeat likely does not mean an end for the bill, but rather will require Republicans to regroup and rewrite it to cater to conservative concerns about work requirements to Medicaid, rolling back renewable energy tax credits passed under Joe Biden’s presidency and making deeper spending cuts.
The legislative defeat shows the differing factions that Republicans must navigate with their small majority of only 220, only two seats more than the 218 required to have a majority in the House of Representatives.
The vote came despite Trump’s attempt to rally Republicans on the budget in a post on Truth Social.
“Republicans MUST UNITE behind, “THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!” Not only does it cut Taxes for ALL Americans, but it will kick millions of Illegal Aliens off of Medicaid to PROTECT it for those who are the ones in real need,” Trump said amid his trip to the Middle East. “The Country will suffer greatly without this Legislation, with their Taxes going up 65%. It will be blamed on the Democrats, but that doesn’t help our Voters.”
Republicans hope to pass the bill — which would extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts, ramp up spending for immigration enforcement and energy exploration — via the process of reconciliation, which would allow them to sidestep a filibuster in the Senate as long as it relates to the budget.
