Republicans Are Already Gearing Up for a Legislative Sprint on Reconciliation

The House and the Senate got a budget framework adopted by deferring on the hardest choices. Now leaders actually have to make those tough decisions.

Mike Johnson, Chip Roy

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, followed by Rep. Chip Roy, walks to an event at the Capitol. J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Before lawmakers left for a two-week recess last Thursday, House Republicans limped over the finish line and adopted the Senate’s budget framework. Now, the hard part begins.

Speaker Mike Johnson may have gotten his conference onboard with the Senate’s budget, but there are a number of discrepancies between the two chambers on an ultimate deal — and House conservatives only went along with the upper chamber’s text because they had assurances that lawmakers would find $1.5 trillion in cuts, not the $4 billion called for in the Senate’s language.

House GOP leaders have asked all committees to mark up their portions of a reconciliation bill within the first two weeks of lawmakers returning from recess, a person familiar with the process told NOTUS.