The House Budget Committee released the budget framework for Republicans’ third party-line spending bill, with a top line of $95 billion in spending.
The resolution includes spending instructions for four committees: the House Administration Committee at $10 billion, the House Armed Services Committee at $60 billion, the House Agriculture Committee at $12 billion, and the House Intelligence Committee at $13 billion. There are no spending offsets in the resolution.
The release of the budget resolution officially begins the reconciliation process, with the Budget Committee set to mark up the resolution on Thursday. House GOP leadership is hoping to pass the budget resolution on the House floor next week, before the House leaves for its August recess.
“Safeguarding American elections and strengthening our national defense are the most basic responsibilities of Congress and are supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said in a statement. “While House Republicans have UNANIMOUSLY PASSED the SAVE Act THREE TIMES, Congressional Democrats continue OBSTRUCTING our attempts to secure our elections and fund our men and women in uniform.”
It is an ambitious timeline, as Johnson will have to convince fiscal hawks to support the resolution despite the exclusion of other committees that oversee tax and entitlement programs, where the most significant offsets would occur. The lack of offsets will likely rile fiscal hawks in the House.
“My prediction? DOA,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) said in a post on X responding to the budget resolution spending breakdown.
A senior House Republican aide told reporters Wednesday morning that GOP leadership decided to move forward with a narrow, streamlined reconciliation bill after conversations with the White House and the Senate, as it will need to pass out of the upper chamber for it to become law.
The budget resolution tees up two legislative priorities for House Republicans: the White House’s military supplemental request and enacting the SAVE America Act. The resolution is in line with the White House’s request for $67 billion to support national defense and comes after President Donald Trump called on Congress to prioritize it last week.
However, it does not include the full $350 billion that the president has called on Congress to pass through reconciliation.
“When Congress returns, we must pass Reconciliation 3.0, with 350 Billion Dollars for Defense, plus THE SAVE AMERICA ACT!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “I am calling on House and Senate Leadership to make this their Number One Priority, and ensure that 350 Billion Dollars in Recon 3.0 moves out of the Budget Committee as soon as Congress is back in session.”
Republicans are hoping to include provisions from the voter identification bill, which left the House at an impasse for nearly three weeks after the Senate’s failure to pass the bill on its own. But it is unclear whether the voter ID language would pass the Senate’s Byrd Rule, which governs policies allowed in reconciliation bills, in its current form.
The request came as the administration faces renewed fighting with Iran. The U.S. launched strikes on Iran last week after Trump declared the ceasefire over, reigniting a conflict the White House had hoped to contain.
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Reconciliation is a budget process that allows the GOP to quickly implement Trump’s policies by bypassing the Senate’s 60-vote threshold and passing the bill with a simple majority.
Including the SAVE America Act and funding for Iran in a third reconciliation bill would allow Republicans to sidestep the filibuster.
