Republicans advanced their massive tax cut and border security package out of a key House committee during a rare Sunday night vote as deficit hawks who blocked the measure two days earlier reversed course after gaining commitments on the package's spending cuts, the AP reports. Speaker Mike Johnson met with Republican lawmakers shortly before the meeting, telling reporters that the changes agreed to were "just some minor modifications. Not a huge thing." Democrats on the panel pressed for more details about the changes that Republicans had agreed to in the private negotiations. But Rep. Jodey Arrington, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said he could not give those details.
"Deliberations continue at this very moment," Arrington said. "They will continue on into the week, and I suspect right up until the time we put this big, beautiful bill on the floor of the House." The first time Republicans tried advancing the bill out of the House Budget Committee, deficit hawks joined with Democratic lawmakers in voting against reporting the measure to the full House. Five Republicans voted no, one on procedural grounds, the other four voicing concerns about the bill's impact on federal budget deficits. On Sunday evening, the four voicing concerns about the bill's impact on the deficit voted present, and the measure passed by a vote of 17-16. Johnson is looking to put the bill on the House floor before the end of the week.
"This is the vehicle through which we will deliver on the mandate that the American people gave us in the last election," he said on Fox News Sunday. If the bill passes the House this week, it would then move to the Senate, where Republican lawmakers are also eyeing changes that could make final passage in the House more difficult. Johnson said: "The package that we send over there will be one that was very carefully negotiated and delicately balanced, and we hope that they don't make many modifications to it because that will ensure its passage quickly."
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