House GOP’s ‘Big, Beautiful’ Bill Blocked in Key Committee Vote as Party Splinters over Spending Cuts

Republican spending hawks dealt a significant blow to President Trump’s domestic agenda on Friday, blocking his “big, beautiful” bill from advancing through the House Budget Committee.

The measure failed in a 16-21 vote, with five Republicans voting no: Representatives Chip Roy of Texas, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, Andrew Clyde of Georgia and Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania. 

The party could only lose the support of two of its members and still pass the legislation.

The fiscal hawks who voted down the 1,116-page bill argue the measure doesn’t include enough spending cuts, even as House GOP leadership sources contend the spending cuts outlined in the bill exceed the figures deficit hawks outlined earlier this year amid budget blueprint talks. 

The bill must advance in the Budget Committee before it can move forward to the Rules Committee and ultimately the House floor. 

Earlier on Friday, Trump posted on Truth Social urging Republicans to unite behind the bill.

“Not only does it cut Taxes for ALL Americans, but it will kick millions of Illegal Aliens off of Medicaid to PROTECT it for those who are the ones in real need,” he wrote. “The Country will suffer greatly without this Legislation, with their Taxes going up 65%. It will be blamed on the Democrats, but that doesn’t help our Voters.”

“We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE! It is time to fix the MESS that Biden and the Democrats gave us. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he concluded.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had hoped the House could pass the legislation by Memorial Day, is facing intraparty battles over several facets of the bill, including the State and Local Tax deduction, Medicaid, and clean energy tax credits.

The House GOP bill, released by the House Ways and Means Committee on Monday, aims to slash taxes by more than $4 trillion and reduce spending by at least $1.5 trillion over a decade.

It would renew many of the president’s first-term tax cuts that are set to expire at year’s end, including a permanent extension on the 37 percent top rate for individuals.

While the draft calls for increasing the state and local tax deduction to $30,000 for both individuals and couples, an increase from the current $10,000 deduction, Politico reports that the SALT plan isn’t final. Lawmakers representing high-tax areas want a larger tax break; they have proposed as much as $124,000 for joint filers.

Pro-SALT Republicans from states like New York and California are pushing for an increase in the expiring deduction far beyond that proposal. The pro-SALT caucus has argued that a small increase on the $10,000 baseline will imperil their reelection prospects in high-tax swing-districts.

On Medicaid, a vocal minority of Republican lawmakers have voiced concern about the bill’s provider tax and cost-sharing provisions, warning that Medicaid cuts will strip working-class families of health insurance and cause rural hospitals to close their doors.

Senator Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) previously authored a New York Times op-ed calling the GOP’s Medicaid-cut plan “morally wrong and politically suicidal.”

Meanwhile, House GOP leadership told reporters on Thursday that new Medicaid work requirements on able-bodied adults without children will kick in before the current 2029 trigger in response to concerns from House Republican fiscal hawks.

“We don’t have an exact date, but it’ll be sooner than what’s in the current bill,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said.

Additionally, some Senate Republicans have expressed skepticism about the scope and timeline for phasing out clean-energy tax credits that President Biden signed into law in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

The bill is likely to face major revisions once it heads to the Senate. The White House is hoping to have the bill to Trump’s desk by July 4.

Audrey Fahlberg contributed reporting.