1 week Ago By Mike Lillis
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Wednesday that he’s still aiming to stage a vote later in the evening on a Senate-passed budget bill to guide President Trump’s domestic agenda, but suggested the support is not yet there to pass it and the final vote will come later than 5:30 p.m.
, as initially scheduled.“We're continuing to have discussions. The intention is to have the vote by this evening, and we'll see when that time is,” he told reporters shortly after 4 p.
m., as the House was voting on the rule underlying the budget bill. “I'm not going to tell you what the number is,” he continued.
“But I'll tell you I'm optimistic, as I always am, and we're working toward that final consensus. I think we'll get there.”GOP leaders are scrambling to secure enough Republican support for the Senate’s budget blueprint, which is a crucial step in the party’s effort to pass Trump’s domestic priorities, including sweeping tax cuts, later in the year.
House Republicans advanced the bill on Wednesday on a narrow, 216-215 vote, but several conservatives have said they will vote against final passage even though they voted to overcome the procedural hurdle.The Senate bill has infuriated some hardliners who say the spending cuts it promotes are insufficient to rein in deficit spending and reduced the national debt. They want greater assurances that the Senate bill will lead to cuts more in line with the House version of the budget plan, passed in February, which mandated at least $1.
5 trillion in spending reductions. Johnson said Wednesday’s discussions involved not only House lawmakers, but Republicans in the Senate, as well. But he dismissed the notion that the Senate should put its commitment to larger cuts down on paper before the House vote.
“I don't think so,” he said. “There's a lot of good faith dialogue and discussion going on between leaders in both chambers and that's been very productive. It's a one-team approach.
“I think we're going to continue that for the next couple of hours,” he added, and we'll see where we land tonight.".
