House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries lamented Thursday that Republicans were only able to advance the blueprint for President Trump’s “big, beautiful” agenda because of the “tragic” deaths of two Democratic lawmakers last month.
“Passing this initial budget resolution should have been a slam dunk for Republicans,” the Brooklyn Democrat told reporters after the vote. “They had to pull the bill down off the floor last night and barely struggled to pass it today. We had two tragic deaths in the House Democratic caucus.”
Moments earlier, Republicans had approved the measure by a 216-214 margin, after postponing the initial scheduled vote a day earlier due to a revolt by fiscal hawks.
“Had those deaths not occurred last month, Republicans could not have even passed the bill today,” added Jeffries, referring to the rule that tied votes fail in the House.
Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Texas) died March 5 after serving just two months in Congress, followed eight days later by Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.). With special elections not set to replace the two decedents until later this year, the House currently has 220 Republicans and 213 Democrats.
Two Republicans voted against the measure — Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — while three lawmakers were absent: Donald Norcross (D-NJ), who suffered “an emergency medical event” this week; Bob Onder (R-Mo.); and David Valadao (R-Calif.)
Republicans needed to adopt the budget resolution so they could unlock the reconciliation process to begin drafting the actual marquee Trump agenda package encompassing tax cuts, bolstered defense and border security spending, and bolstered energy exploration.
Reconciliation is the only avenue to get the Trump agenda package through the Senate without necessitating the 60 votes needed to break a Dem filibuster. Republicans have 53 Senate seats.
The House GOP is aiming to cut a minimum of $1.5 trillion and up to $2 trillion from the federal budget over a ten year period to help pay for the package. Democrats contend that mathematically, Republicans need to cut into Medicaid to make that work.
“No one has talked about cutting one benefit to anyone in Medicaid who is duly owed. What we’ve talked about is returning work requirements,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) clarified to reporters Thursday.
But concerns about Medicaid have rattled moderate Republicans in both the House and Senate. At the same time, GOP leadership is grappling with fiscal hawks who are adamant about getting deep spending cuts.
Getting the budget resolution was widely seen as the easy part. Drafting a final bill that enough Republicans in both chambers can agree upon will be complicated amid differing views within the caucus on spending.
