Speaker Mike Johnson Advances House Budget Resolution

House Republicans advanced a budget resolution Tuesday evening 217 to 215, clearing the first step to enacting President Donald Trump’s first-year legislative agenda.

GOP leadership’s narrow passage of the budget framework is a sigh of relief to Speaker Mike Johnson, who initially pulled the resolution from the floor, leading to speculation that Republicans did not have the votes to pass the budget blueprint. House GOP leadership successfully flipped Republican Reps. Victoria Spartz of Indiana, Warren Davidson of Ohio and Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who previously said they would vote against the resolution.

Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie was the lone GOP lawmaker to oppose the bill.

House Republicans held the previous floor vote open for more than an hour in an attempt to flip several GOP holdouts prior to the vote on the budget resolution. That effort appeared to have failed with House GOP leadership pulling the vote on the resolution only to bring the budget blueprint to a vote in a remarkable turnaround minutes later.

“The American people overwhelmingly elected us to govern, and today’s passage of this budget is a critical step in delivering on that mandate,” House Republican Policy Chair Kevin Hern of Oklahoma said following the floor vote. “This is a win for the American people — and a commitment to securing a stronger, more prosperous future.”

Johnson told reporters that House Republicans had the votes to pass the budget resolution earlier Thursday.

Johnson faced the unenviable task of convincing conservative fiscal hawks and centrist Republican lawmakers to agree on a budget resolution while leading the smallest House majority in U.S. history. He has repeatedly said that the House’s “one big, beautiful bill” is the best approach to fulfilling the president’s first-year tax and spending priorities.

“There’s no plan B,” Johnson told reporters prior to the vote. “This is the only plan we’re running with.”

He also overcame immense pressure to deliver on a budget resolution Tuesday, due to the president endorsing the House GOP budget proposal on Feb. 19 and the Senate moving full steam ahead with their competing budget plan.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune led GOP senators in passing a slimmed-down budget plan on Feb. 21. Senate Republicans have cast their budget blueprint as a backup plan in case Johnson were to fail to pass a budget resolution of his own.

The House’s budget resolution approves up to $4.5 trillion in deficit increases to execute the president’s tax agenda and aims to cut between $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion in spending. The House resolution also approves a $4 trillion hike in the statutory debt limit.

Three House Democrats’ surprise attendance Tuesday evening also complicated the GOP leadership’s floor math to pass the budget resolution. With Democratic Reps. Frederica Wilson of Florida, Brittany Petersen of Colorado and Kevin Mullin of California in attendance, House GOP leadership could afford to lose just one GOP vote.

Democratic Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva did not vote. Grijalva, who was diagnosed with cancer in February 2024, has cast just one vote during the 119th Congress after deciding to run for reelection.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/CSPAN)

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