House advances “big, beautiful” agenda bill Trump asked for

The House of Representatives voted largely along party lines on Tuesday evening to pass House leadership’s budget proposal—a significant first step in advancing President Trump’s agenda through what he has dubbed “one, big, beautiful bill.”

The House adopted the resolution 217-215. All 214 voting Democrats voted against the package. Only one Republican, Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted in opposition.

The budget calls for $1.5 trillion in cuts to discretionary funding over 10 years, calls on Congress to cut up to $2 trillion in non-discretionary funding, allocates $4.5 trillion in new spending over ten years, and instructs lawmakers to raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.

Why does the budget matter? The budget is the first step towards “reconciliation,” a legislative vehicle that more easily allows Congress to reconcile the nation’s spending with the designs of a budget. Instead of the regular 60 votes needed to break a filibuster in the Senate. Reconciliation packages only require 51 votes, a simple majority, to succeed. While reconciliation was originally designed as a spending tool, both parties have used it to pass sweeping policy platforms when the president’s party controls both chambers of Congress. Republicans plan to use the vehicle to pass Trump’s priorities including those on taxes and border policy.

Was there ever any doubt the package would pass the House? Passing Trump’s big beautiful bill is a relatively easy way to pass part of his agenda, but its passage through the House is a sigh of relief to Republican leadership. As late as Tuesday morning, Speaker Johnson was negotiating with holdouts. Moderate Republicans expressed concern about possible cuts to Medicaid. While the budget proposes no specific cuts, lawmakers like Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., wanted assurances that the framework of the program itself wouldn’t be changed.

Republican leadership highlighted Medicaid as being rife with waste, fraud, and abuse—a mine where they hope to find billions in potential savings.

On the other side of the spectrum, fiscal conservatives like Massie, the lone dissenting vote, had argued that the package would only widen the country’s yawning deficit if Republicans failed to deliver on their projected cuts.

What now? With the budget passed, Republicans in the House must begin crafting its designs into specific pieces of legislation. While the budget creates broad consensus for the party’s overall aims, the implementation of those designs could threaten to slow the GOP’s progress in enacting Trump’s agenda.

Dig deeper: Listen to my reporting on Washington Wednesday as to why getting the budget right was key to Republican leadership.