House GOP rushing to produce Trump's big budget bill with tax cuts, program cuts and other promises

WASHINGTON — (AP) — House Republicans are working overtime after a lengthy White House meeting to meet President Donald Trump’s demand for a big budget package that includes some $3 trillion in tax breaks, massive program cuts and a possible extension of the nation’s debt limit.

Speaker Mike Johnson had GOP lawmakers working into the night ahead of a self-imposed Friday deadline to produce the package, after having blown past an earlier timeline to draft the contours of a bill that could begin making its long journey through Congress to the president’s desk.

Trump’s message as he popped in and out of the nearly five-hour meeting Thursday at the White House was simple: Get it done.

“What he does a really good job at is: Here’s the end result that I want,” Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., the House GOP Conference chair, said afterward.

On the list for the emerging budget package from the House GOP: making tax cuts that expire at the end of this year permanent, cutting spending on federal programs and ensuring Trump has enough money to launch his deportation operation and finish building the U.S-Mexico border wall. The package could raise the nation’s debt ceiling to allow more borrowing and prevent a federal default.

It’s a heavy lift for Congress, and House and Senate GOP leaders have been desperately looking to Trump for direction on how to proceed, but so far the president has been noncommittal about the details — only pushing Congress for results.

The standoff is creating frustration for Republicans as precious time is slipping and they fail to make progress on what has been their top priority with their party in control in Washington. At the same time, congressional phone lines are being swamped with callers protesting cost-cutting efforts led by billionaire Elon Musk against federal programs, services and operations.

Trump set the tone at the start of Thursday’s session, lawmakers said, then left them to hammer out the details. Republican senators are heading Friday to Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago club for their own meeting.

“Very positive developments today,” Johnson said once he returned to the Capitol. “We’re really grateful to the president for leaning in and doing what he does best, and that is put a steady hand at the wheel and get everybody working.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters the president and lawmakers discussed “tax priorities of the Trump administration,” including Trump’s promises to end federal taxation of tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay. Renewing tax cuts Trump enacted in 2017 also was on the agenda, she said.

“The president is committed to working with Congress to get this done,” Leavitt said.

Johnson, R-La., needs almost complete unanimity from his ranks to pass any bill over objections from Democrats. In the Senate, Republicans have a 53-47 majority, with little room for dissent.

House Republicans reconvened in the evening at the Capitol to make sure all the Republicans would be on board with the emerging plan, particularly the spending cuts that have the potential to cause angst among lawmakers as they slice into government services Americans depend on from coast to coast.

The chair of the House Budget Committee, Texas Rep. Jodey Arrington, said his panel is preparing to hold hearings on the package next week.

But as Johnson’s timeline has slipped, the Senate is making moves to take charge.

Republicans led by Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota have proposed a two-step approach, starting with a smaller bill that would include money for Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall and deportation plans, among other priorities. They later would pursue the more robust package of tax break extensions before a year-end deadline.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, announced that his panel, too, was pushing ahead next week with hearings to kickstart the process.

The dueling approaches between the House and Senate are becoming something of a race to see which chamber will make the most progress toward the GOP’s overall goals.

The House GOP largely wants what Trump has called a “big, beautiful bill” that would extend some $3 trillion in tax cuts and include funding for the president’s mass deportation effort and border wall. It includes massive cuts from a menu of government programs — from health care to food assistance — to help offset the tax cuts.

The smaller bill Graham is proposing would total some $300 billion and include border money and a boost in defense spending, largely paid for with a rollback of Biden-era green energy programs.

House Republicans are deeply split over Graham’s approach. But they are also at odds over their own ideas.

House GOP leaders are proposing cuts that would bring $1 trillion in savings over the decade, lawmakers said, but members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus want at least double that amount.

Trump has repeatedly said he is less wed to the process used in Congress than the outcome of achieving his policy goals.

If the House GOP’s initial meeting with Trump at the White House last month was a good first date, this one was “whether we want kids or not,” McClain told reporters.

“This was a very different meeting,” she said. “It was still positive, optimistic. But it was getting down to business.”

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