Speaker Mike Johnson presses forward with budget vote despite conservative opposition

WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said House Republicans would try again Thursday to adopt the budget plan needed to jumpstart work on President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda, one day after conservatives threatened to sink it.

Johnson appeared alongside Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., at a news conference before the vote and projected confidence, even though he had to postpone the vote the night before. Fiscal conservatives in the House had withheld support unless they got guarantees for deeper spending cuts in the budget resolution.

At their joint news conference, Johnson said leaders were “committed to finding at least $1.5 trillion in savings for the American people.” The budget blueprint adopted by the Senate that the House is voting on called for a minimum of $4 billion in spending cuts, which led to the hang-up.

“I believe we have the votes to finally adopt the budget resolution so we can move forward among President Trump’s very important agenda for the American people,” Johnson told reporters. 

“This process has required a lot of close consultation between the White House and the Senate, and all of that has been necessary because we want to make sure that we are delivering on our shared goals in the budget reconciliation process,” Johnson said. 

Thune, who met with several of the House Republican holdouts on the budget resolution Wednesday night, said the Senate is “aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings.”

If Republicans are successful Thursday, the vote will represent just the first step in a lengthy process to fulfill Trump’s agenda to prevent a tax hike at the end of the year, and boost immigration enforcement and defense spending.

The budget resolution directs relevant House and Senate committees to begin working on the details of those efforts, while also identifying specific savings to pay for them.