Republicans in the US House of Representatives narrowly passed a multi-trillion dollar government spending bill on Tuesday, a major boost for President Donald Trump that advances his 2025 agenda.
The 217-215 vote was seen as a key early test for Republican House speaker Mike Johnson, who cancelled an earlier vote as it appeared he did not have enough support.
Several Republicans wanted more fiscal discipline from a budget that includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, funded partially by spending cuts but also by potentially increasing the US government’s substantial debt pile.
But the bill eventually passed along party lines, with all Democrats voting against and just one Republican opposing it.
That Republican was Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a prominent fiscal hawk who wanted deeper spending cuts. One Democrat did not vote.
The House budget seeks $2 trillion in spending cuts over the next 10 years to pay for President Trump’s agenda. It includes more than $100bn in new spending on immigration enforcement and the military.
It would also extend tax breaks passed during his first term in office, which are due to expire at the end of the year.
However there are still a number of steps the spending plan must go through in order to become law.
The budget will have to be merged with a separate budget which is under consideration by the US Senate, in a process called reconciliation.
And even if both chambers ultimately agree on a spending plan, many finer details will need to be negotiated before it can be sent to President Trump’s desk to be signed.
House Republican leaders initially delayed Tuesday’s vote when it was unclear whether they would have enough support to pass the measure.
Speaker Johnson and the second most senior House Republican, Steve Scalise, spent hours working to convince wavering party members to back the plan which, as well as tax cuts, would fund border security measures, deportations and military spending.
Trump personally called some of the holdouts to encourage them to pass the bill, the two Republican leaders said.
“Trump helped us with a number of members,” Scalise told reporters. “Talking to anybody that we asked that really needed to clarify things.”
Three of the four party holdouts who had been initially seen as firm no votes – Representatives Tim Burchett, Victoria Spartz and Warren Davidson – ultimately voted in favour.
“We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we are going to deliver the American First agenda,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the vote.
“We’re going to celebrate tonight, and we’ll roll up our sleeves and get right back in the morning.”
Democrats lined up to criticise the budget as a tax cut mostly for the wealthy, which they said would hurt low-income families who rely on the government-funded health care programme Medicaid.
The party worked to get as many members in the chamber for the crucial vote, with Representative Brittany Petterson arriving with her son while on maternity leave.
The Senate will be under pressure to take up the House’s spending framework because President Trump has endorsed it, despite their separate bill which was introduced last week.-BBC
