House Speaker Mike Johnson poked fun at “flailing” Democrats on Sunday and vowed that the House of Representatives would be just as aggressive in pushing legislation as President Donald Trump has been with executive orders.
Johnson made the statement during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday” with host Shannon Bream. Johnson said House Republicans are working to compile the massive legislative package Trump has requested.
“We’re going to secure the border, we’re going to make sure that American communities are safe. We’re going to get American energy dominance going again in the economy and restore common sense,” Johnson said.
“But to do all that in one big bill takes a little bit of time. So we’re working through that process very productively. We’ve been building on this for a year, Shannon. All through last year, we had our committees of jurisdiction working on the ideas to put it together,” he added.
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“We were going to do a budget committee markup next week. We might push it a little bit further because the details really matter. Remember that I have the smallest margin in history, about a two vote margin currently. So I’ve got to make sure everyone agrees before we bring the project forward, that final product, and we’ve got a few more boxes to check, but we’re getting very, very close,” he continued.
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The budget bill process has not been without its share of in-fighting, however. Republican spending hawks are pushing leaders to include at least $2.5 trillion in spending cuts in the massive legislative package.
One GOP lawmaker said that tension bubbled up in a closed-door meeting last week with several “heated exchanges,” with conservatives demanding a concrete plan and minimum spending cuts at significantly higher levels than what was initially proposed.
“I think there’s a lot of frustration right now,” the lawmaker told Fox News Digital. “They’ve been trying to be inclusive, but not every open forum they’ve offered is giving members the ability to say, ‘I feel like people are listening to me,’ because I don’t know that’s the case right now.”
Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, and Ralph Norman, R-S.C., two conservative members of the House Budget Committee, both told reporters they wanted to see the baseline for spending cuts set at roughly $2.5 trillion.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.
