House unveils plan for first steps toward Trump’s agenda

House Republicans unveiled their budget blueprint on Wednesday morning, paving the way for their party-line, tax-and-immigration package they expect to pass later this year.

The document lays out government spending goals for 2026-2034 and sets target cuts specific to certain committees in the House of Representatives. As a plan, it aims to create room for many GOP legislative priorities amid party control of Congress and the White House. It serves as an important starting point for the party to coalesce around Trump’s legislative platform.

What’s in the plan? The concurrent resolution requires committees to find the following cuts:

· Committee on Agriculture
-$230 billion

· Education and Workforce
-$330 billion

· Energy and Commerce
-$880 billion

· Financial Services
-$1 billion

· Natural Resources
-$1 billion

· Oversight and Government Reform
- $50 billion

· Transportation and Infrastructure
-$10 billion

The target levels are not final and don’t describe specific programs or offices that would be on the chopping block. Those details will be negotiated in the next few weeks as the House works to turn the roadmap into concrete legislation.

The bill also lays out areas where spending should increase:

· The Committee on Armed Services
+$100 billion

· Judiciary
+$110 billion

· Homeland Security
+$90 billion

Are those all the changes to spending outlines? Separate from the target windows, the plan also requires Congress to find $2 trillion of cuts categorized as mandatory spending. The plan argues that the bulk of the government’s current deficit stems from spending programs that are outside of the annual appropriations process. The bill notes that mandatory spending has increased by 59% from 2019.

Mandatory spending includes programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and tax credits. Republicans repeatedly have saidthat while they intend to weed out fraud, waste, and abuse, they have promised that the borders of the entitlement programs themselves will remain unchanged.

What about other components of Republican legislative priorities? The upcoming party-line bill would address top-line Republican priorities like renewing the 2017 tax cuts or changes to border security. The bill will instruct the Ways and Means Committee to “submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction that increase the deficit by not more than $4.5 trillion” to pursue those priorities.

What else does the budget include? The text also calls for the increase of the debt ceiling to the tune of $4 trillion. The United States has run up against its debt limit and is currently unable to borrow more funds. Without the ability borrow, the country will eventually be unable to meet its financial obligations, pay its employees, or pay back its debt.

The Treasury is currently employing what it calls extraordinary measures to make payments in the short term. In 2023, the United States used these measures for six months to avoid defaulting on its payments without borrowing additional funds.

Dig deeper: Read my reporting on why the debt ceiling is key to moving the ball on any GOP priorities.