CNN
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House Republicans have taken a critical step to advance President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and border priorities through Congress, a major win for party leadership after quelling a conservative rebellion over the plan’s price tag.
The Thursday morning vote on the Senate’s budget blue print – a key initial step in the long budget process – will ultimately allow Republicans to muscle the president’s first big legislative measure over a Democratic filibuster. It capped a dramatic week for Speaker Mike Johnson, who was forced to call off plans for a vote on the contentious measure just hours earlier after nearly 20 Republicans demanded a guarantee of steep spending cuts.
GOP leaders ultimately convinced them to back the plan for how, punting bigger – and more difficult – fights on spending for the coming weeks. It marked a win for Johnson, who has repeatedly relied on Trump to pass contentious bills that his conservatives hate.
The speaker met with the last group of holdouts ahead of the vote Thursday morning, as he sought to avoid an embarrassing defeat from his conference. And Trump applied pressure, promoting his “big, beautiful, bill” on Truth Social and making calls to lawmakers.
Rep. Ralph Norman told CNN that a conversation with Trump helped to flip his vote.
“This has evolved over the last 24 hours. You’ve got the speaker, you’ve got the president, you’ve for Thune,” the South Carolina Republican said.
Asked about his conversation with the president, Norman said: “He was very encouraging. We’re not gonna have a deficit. We’re gonna have $1.5 [trillion] minimum.”
Ahead of the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune sought to present a united front on how to move forward on Trump’s agenda. The pair delivered a joint statement aimed at assuring House conservatives the Senate would back the steep spending cuts that have been a massive sticking point.
“We are committed to finding at least $1.5 trillion in savings for the American people, while also preserving our essential programs,” Johnson said unequivocally.
Thune, meanwhile, said that “our ambition in the Senate is we are aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings.”
“The speaker’s talked about $1.5 trillion dollars. We have a lot of United States senators who believe that is a minimum. And we’re certainly will do everything we can to be as aggressive as possible to see that we are serious about the matter,” he continued.
A number of the Republican holdouts wanted to see Thune commit to spending cuts, and the question remained even minutes ahead of the vote whether the Senate leader’s commitment had been enough.
Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise huddled with a group of about 10 conservative holdouts in a room just off the House floor, hoping to get final assurances it had convinced them to support the blueprint.
Following the talks, Johnson remained optimistic that he had broken through the logjam after around-the-clock negotiations Wednesday.
“We got the votes,” he emphatically declared as he left the meeting to head to the floor.
CNN’s Lauren Fox, Morgan Rimmer and Alejandra Jaramillo contributed to this report.
