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House to vote next week on budget plan following Trump boost

News: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said the House will hold a vote next week on its budget resolution and called on Senate Republican leaders to drop their efforts to pass a competing measure.

In an interview following President Donald Trump’s announcement that he was supporting the House’s “one-bill” approach, Scalise said House GOP leaders will put their resolution on the floor for a vote next week. This is a big win for Scalise, Speaker Mike Johnson, Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and other House GOP leaders.

Here’s Scalise:

Scalise said that committees will have all of March to assemble the policy particulars for the reconciliation package. And then the House will seek to pass the package in April.

There’s been a debate raging between House and Senate Republicans about the best way to advance Trump’s agenda: through one comprehensive package or two. The two-bill approach would punt an extension of the 2017 tax cuts until later this year, a dynamic that concerns House Republican leaders.

Trump had refused to take sides until now, frustrating both House and Senate Republican leaders.

Senate Republicans were pushing a narrow resolution, which envisions $340 billion in new Pentagon and border security money, including funding for Trump’s border wall between the United States and Mexico. The resolution also would make changes to federal energy policy, fully offset by cuts in mandatory spending.

The House’s bill includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, coupled with at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. It would increase the debt limit by $4 trillion. The package is likely to include cuts to Medicaid and will certainly put House GOP moderates in a tough position.

Trump brought an end to the House-Senate debate today.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune was huddling Wednesday morning with Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in his Capitol office.

Graham told us Vice President JD Vance will come to the Capitol to have lunch with Senate Republicans Wednesday.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said Republicans are “still on schedule and we’re moving ahead,” signaling that there may be more clarity on their path forward after the lunch with Vance.

– Jake Sherman, John Bresnahan, Andrew Desiderio and Max Cohen