The House Republican approach to President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy agenda moved a step closer to approval after Republicans stayed united on a test vote, setting up a possible final floor vote Tuesday evening.
The Trump-backed fiscal blueprint still faces tough odds on final adoption, with a handful of conservative hard-liners demanding it get rewritten to guarantee deeper spending cuts. Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford one GOP defection on a party-line vote if all members are voting.
But clearing the procedural hurdle was still a victory for Johnson, who made public and private appeals to holdouts with concerns about the underlying budget measure. The final vote was 217-211; one Republican and four Democrats did not vote.
The afternoon vote, on a rule setting up floor consideration of the budget measure, was helped along because it also set up votes on two energy-related Congressional Review Act measures that have broad Republican support.
Johnson hopes to push the fiscal blueprint through the House on Tuesday evening. Adopting the budget measure is a key step toward passing the “big, beautiful bill” that Trump and top House Republicans have called for — one that includes border security, tax and energy provisions that the president campaigned on.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
