President Donald Trump’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” cleared the House Budget Committee late on Sunday evening after it had failed on Friday.
The vote came after four of the conservatives who opposed the legislation on Friday, switched their votes to “present,” despite the fact that the bill is virtually the same.
This came despite the fact that Democrats on the committee questioned what changes came to the legislation after the failed vote on Friday.
The bill will now head to the House Rules Committee, which will tee it up for a final vote on the floor of the U.S House of Representatives.
“I think it’s important that all the members have the full details on that in advance of any vote, so that way we know in a transparent, honest way, exactly what we’re voting,” Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, asked Chairman Jodey Arrington of Texas.
But Arrington said that the legislation was unchanged.
“I couldn’t tell you what is in flux, what is fixed, what might change or not change,” Arrington said. “This process is fluid, and it will go to the Rules Committee, most likely there will be some changes, and that’s the way the process goes.”
The legislation would extend the 2017 tax cuts that Trump signed and put in place new tax cuts, such as the president’s proposal to remove taxes on tips. In addition, it would ramp up spending for oil drilling, immigration enforcement and the US military.
But conservatives voted against the bill on Friday because it would not enact work requirements for Medicaid–the health care program for poor people, pregnant women, children and people with disabilities–for able-bodied adults without children until 2029 and because it did not more aggressively roll back renewable energy credits signed by President Joe Biden.
Democrats have railed against the changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, to pay for tax cuts.
Republicans have only a two-seat majority in the House of Representatives and only 53 seats in the Senate, which is not enough to break a filibuster, the 60-vote threshold that most legislation requires now. Thus, they plan to pass the legislation through a process known as reconciliation, which allows for legislation to pass with a simple majority as long as it relates to the budget.
But despite voting “present to advance the bill,” some conservatives still have objections to it.
Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus and a member of the Budget Committee, praised the progress on the bill on X but still said it did not go far enough, particularly on Medicaid and rolling back renewable energy credits.
“As such, I joined with 3 of my colleagues to vote “present” out of respect for the Republican Conference and the President to move the bill forward,” he said.
The legislation also comes as Moody’s downgraded the US credit rating specifically because of the nation’s soaring debt, which Roy cited.
“It gives us the opportunity to work together this week to get the job done in light of the fact our bond rating was dropped yet again due to historic fiscal mismanagement by both parties,” he said.
But legislation is not guaranteed to pass. Plenty of Republicans from states with Democratic governments want to see a lift on the cap for state and local tax (SALT) deduction for federal income taxes after Trump’s 2017 tax law capped the deduction at $10,000.
In addition, the legislation will likely face even more changes once it reaches the Senate as some conservatives want to see deeper cuts while other Republicans from swing states will likely oppose major changes to Medicaid.
