President Donald Trump swooped in at the eleventh hour to whip a key vote on the “big” and “beautiful” budget bill he’s championed in recent weeks.
Trump successfully convinced Rep. Victoria Spartz to flip her vote to a yes Tuesday night, a source familiar told the Daily Beast.
Spartz was one of three holdouts to ultimately vote for the budget resolution, with Reps. Warren Davidson and Tim Burchett cautioning leadership they didn’t plan to vote for the measure. It passed 217-213 after a dramatic series of events.
Leadership initially pulled the bill, with members exiting the chamber before calling them back in a dramatic turnaround after holdouts confirmed they would support the budget.
“We weren’t ready yet, so we went on to the set the third bill, and then still had to make sure we were there before we made the decision to call everybody back and then bring up the budget,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said of the last-minute schedule change.
Its passage provided Speaker Mike Johnson with a much-needed win, with leadership pulling off what seemed nearly impossible earlier in the day: rallying enough votes to pass a budget resolution, setting the stage for a bill addressing President Trump’s top priorities.
Just one Republican lawmaker voted against the measure: Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
Budget hawks, including Reps. Warren Davidson (R-OH), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), were initially reluctant to support the measure, citing concerns that it failed to address the deficit. However, with a combination of arm-twisting and Democratic absences, House GOP leadership managed to clear a significant hurdle, allowing them to move forward with the massive measure focused on border security, tax cuts, and energy reforms, among a host of other Republican pet projects.
In the days leading up to the vote, several moderate GOP lawmakers also voiced reservations, worried that the resolution could impact key entitlement programs such as Medicaid, Pell Grants, and SNAP. Ultimately, leadership was able to sway them by assuring that these programs would remain untouched.
Earlier in the day, Johnson himself expressed skepticism about the measure’s chances, telling reporters, “The vote may or may not happen. Stay tuned.”
Its passage marks a major victory for Johnson, who affirmed that the House would proceed with its plans while the Senate pursued its own slimmed-down budget resolution, which aimed to take a two-pronged approach.
Meanwhile, Trump repeatedly urged Congress to advance the House plan, stating that he wanted “one big, beautiful bill.”
For months, House GOP leadership held listening sessions with members, working to craft a plan that could unite different factions. While they have cleared a key obstacle, they must now draft and secure support for the sweeping reconciliation bill, which would allow Republicans to bypass the Senate filibuster and pass their top priorities along party lines.
