President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” failed to pass the House Budget Committee on Friday, in what appears to be a massive blow to House GOP leaders’ plans to hold a House-wide vote next week.
Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Josh Brecheen, R-Okla., Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., and Ralph Norman, R-S.C., Lloyd Smucker, R-Pa., all voted against the legislation.
The committee met on Friday to mark up and debate the bill, a massive piece of legislation that’s a product of 11 different House committees’ individual efforts to craft policy under their jurisdictions. The result is a wide-ranging bill that advances Trump’s priorities on the border, immigration, taxes, energy, defense, and raising the debt limit.
Emotions ran high in the hallway outside the House Budget Committee’s meeting room from the outset, however, giving media little indication of how events would transpire.
Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who had been at home with his wife and newborn baby, surprised reporters when he arrived to the Cannon House Office Building after he was initially expected to miss the committee meeting.
His appearance gave House GOP leaders some added wiggle room, allowing the committee to lose two Republican votes and still pass the bill, rather than just one.
Shortly before the meeting was expected to begin, Roy, Norman, Clyde, and Brecheen abruptly left the room while saying little to reporters on the way out.
Each came back a short while later and criticized the legislation in their opening remarks.
At one point, Norman came out of the room and called for the committee to recess in order to work through fiscal hawks’ concerns.
“If they call for a vote now, it’s not going to end well,” he said, adding he was still waiting on commitments from House GOP leaders.
Minutes later, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., who is not a member of the committee but had been meeting with holdouts, told reporters he wanted the legislation to advance through the Budget panel “as soon as possible.”
Asked about Norman’s comments, he said, “I just walked out of the meeting with him a few minutes ago as well, we’re working on some questions that Ralph and others have, and we’re going to be getting them answers as soon as we get them back from the Trump administration. His questions were the same as Chips and a few others, and they’re very specific questions, valid questions we’re working on getting those answers right now.”
