House Republicans on Thursday approved a budget framework allowing lawmakers to start drafting President Donald Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
The legislation will implement elements of Trump’s domestic policy agenda, which includes tax cuts and increased spending on defense, energy, and border security.
The budget blueprint was approved Thursday by a vote of 216 to 214. Ultimately, two Republicans voted no. The vote is a victory for Trump and other Republican leaders who spent days convincing fiscal hawks within the Republican party to vote for the bill despite their frustration over the level of spending cuts included in the Senate version of the plan that passed on Saturday. The Senate framework outlines only about $4 billion in spending cuts. The House version seeks at least $1.5 trillion.
Now that Republicans have passed identical versions of the framework in the House and Senate, they are able to unlock a special budget tool known as reconciliation – a complicated process that allows them to avoid a filibuster in Senate and pass a final version of the legislation with a 51-vote simple majority.
BREAKING: The House has PASSED the Senate approved budget plan!
— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) April 10, 2025
This is HUGE!!! pic.twitter.com/R4b5kU4GQd
President Trump in a post on Truth Social praised the passing of the bill, saying it “sets the stage for one of the Greatest and Most Important Signings in the History of our Country,” and that “it will be the Largest Tax and Regulation Cuts ever even contemplated.”
Only two Republicans voted against the bill, while all Democrats opposed it.
Trump’s bill will include $4 billion in tax cuts and a $5 trillion increase to the debt ceiling. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) fought a hard battle to get to this point. He pulled a Wednesday vote on the Senate budget resolution due to opposition from conservative lawmakers who believed it did not include enough spending cuts.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in a post on X stated that the bill would “hasten the financial collapse of our country” and would cut taxes “while keeping spending on an increasingly unsustainable trajectory.”
If you were trying to hasten financial collapse of our country and bribe voters to go along with it, the strategy wouldn’t look much different than what Congress is doing today.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 10, 2025
The big beautiful bill cuts taxes while keeping spending on an increasingly unsustainable trajectory.
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