House GOP races to advance party-line bill to fund Pentagon, encourage voting restrictions

House Republicans are scrambling to launch a party-line spending bill that would send funding to the Pentagon and incentivize states to tighten voting rules for the fall midterm elections, but they face an array of hurdles, including demands from conservatives to pay for the legislation.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) met Monday with House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), members of the House Budget Committee and White House officials to discuss the path forward for the package, which would rely on a complex procedure known as reconciliation to permit it to pass both the House and the Senate with a simple majority, forgoing Democratic support.

Johnson said during a news conference Tuesday that the House Budget Committee would complete the first step in assembling the package — advancing a new budget resolution — on Thursday.

The effort marks the third time this Congress that Republicans have resorted to the reconciliation process to finance President Donald Trump’s priorities.

But while reconciliation avoids the need for Democratic votes, Republican leaders will still need to rally their own slim majorities. Fiscally conservative Republicans in the House have made clear that, to gain their support, the package would need to include budget cuts to avoid adding to the nation’s climbing $39 trillion debt.

“Any money spent ought to have offsets, with the debt we’ve got,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) told The Washington Post.

House Republicans say they are exploring ways to eliminate what they call “fraud” in social programs; it is unclear what they are looking to cut and from which programs. But the conservative Republican Study Committee scheduled a meeting Wednesday with Congressional Budget Office Director Phillip Swagel, according to a person familiar with those plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a private meeting. The nonpartisan CBO advises lawmakers on policy options and assesses the cost of legislation.

With the House set to leave Washington at the end of next week for the August recess, Republicans are racing the clock. The Senate is set to leave town Aug. 7 until mid-September.

Passing a budget resolution is just the first step in the reconciliation process, creating a framework with spending targets for other committees, which then do the work of assembling the reconciliation package.

On Tuesday, House GOP leaders made it past the first hurdle by getting most of a group of conservative Republicans to drop a boycott that had stalled most floor action since before the July 4 recess.

With the floor reopened, the House will be able to proceed with legislative activity, including voting on a budget resolution once it advances out of committee.

Most work on the House floor had been halted since before the July 4 recess because of a revolt by a group of conservative Republicans led by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (Florida). They refused to support procedural motions to begin debate on any bills until the Save America Act is attached to a must-pass measure.

Luna indicated Monday night that she would drop her boycott. On Tuesday, two other Republican holdouts, Texas Reps. Chip Roy and Keith Self of Texas, held up floor action briefly during the first vote over demands that the House codify Trump’s immigration policies. However, they ultimately voted to allow the House to proceed on debating legislation.

After the vote, Roy told reporters that he received a promise that Republicans would move a bill on border security “in some form” next week.

If Republicans do not pass a budget framework before the August recess, the path to getting the full package through both chambers before the November midterms would be difficult. Numerous other priorities, including funding the government for fiscal year 2027, will also require a substantial amount of lawmakers’ time this fall.

Further complicating matters, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) died suddenly Saturday, forcing Senate Republicans to choose another leader for that critical panel before passing their own budget resolution. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is viewed as Graham’s likely successor.

Republicans have already passed two reconciliation bills this Congress. The One Big Beautiful Bill cut taxes, among other Trump’s priorities, at a cost of $3.4 trillion over the next decade. Another package approved nearly $70 billion for immigration enforcement, funding related agencies through the remainder of Trump’s term.

In the third package, Trump has called on Republicans to approve $350 billion in fresh spending for the Pentagon. On Tuesday, Republican members of the House Budget Committee told The Post that the GOP conference is currently discussing allotting $67 billion for defense spending in the bill.

That is the same amount that the Trump administration requested last month for supplemental Pentagon funding, mostly for needs related to the Iran war. But it is a much lower amount than the $350 billion Trump originally wanted included in reconciliation.

Johnson said that House Republicans would have a briefing at the Pentagon on Tuesday night with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Trump also wants Republicans’ measure to include the Save America Act, a bill that would require voters to present proof of citizenship and a photo ID at the polls.

House Republicans are also looking at including agricultural aid in the reconciliation package. Scalise said the White House requested $20 billion, but no final decision has been made yet.

While the House appeared ready to act on some version of that request, the appetite in the Senate was less clear. Some key Republicans have dismissed the idea of another reconciliation package. On Monday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters that the path to getting 51 senators to support such a bill would be “a bumpy one.”

“The House is going to need to keep in mind if they decide to move forward,” Thune said, that anything they pass is likely to face “limitations … over here in our process.”

The Save America Act, in particular, is a tough sell. Senate rules almost certainly would prevent the legislation from being included in the reconciliation package because they require every provision to have a budgetary impact.

To get around that obstacle, Johnson has said Republicans would seek to create a grant program that would reward states that impose the Save America Act’s restrictions. On Monday, however, Scalise told reporters that details were still being hammered out and that he was “not sure yet” if the grant program would be the method used.