After chaos and the delay, the Chamber approved on Tuesday the republican budget resolution to begin the process to promulgate the legislative agenda of President Donald Trump for a vote of 217-215, a great and critical victory for the speaker Mike Johnson, which was treating with an extremely an extremely majority of the narrow Republican Party.
The republican party leaders were able to successfully turn the representatives Tim Burchett, Warren Davidson and Victoria Spartz, three of the four holdouts. The other, the representative Thomas Massie, was the only Republican who voted against the resolution. Republicans could afford to lose only one vote.
“A lot of work to do, but we are going to celebrate tonight, and we will rise and we will do it again in the morning,” Johnson told journalists after the vote.
It was not clear if the Republicans would have the votes to approve the measure on Tuesday afternoon and night. At least four Republican members had said that they would not vote on the plan and that Mike Johnson’s speaker could only allow a dropout.
The Republicans of the House of Representatives celebrated their first vote on Tuesday night for more than an hour while the leadership tried to dispute the votes for the financing resolution and the Democrats protested.
The leaders of the Republican party then briefly withdrew the budget resolution, the next vote of a series, the schedule and rescheduled a few minutes later and called the entire camera to the camera.
Democratic leaders were able to obtain more from their members to attend the critical vote. Representative Brittany Petterson, who is maternity leave, appeared to vote with her child. The representative Kevin Mullin, who has a medical condition, appeared with a walker. The Democratic leaders of the House of Representatives complained in a message to the Democrats that Johnson was trying to “click” the budget resolution after assuring them that there would be no more votes in the camera at night.
Before the vote, Johnson told reporters: “We are trying to overcome concerns and problems. Many people want to make sure we are reducing an appropriate amount … It is a very complicated negotiation … we will get there.”
The resolution is now addressed to the Senate, where it is an open question about what leadership will do with the plan. The leader of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, has a different approach in the upper chamber: to focus a bill on defense and border security spending and a posterior that would deal with tax cuts and the roof of the Debt, although the president has completely supported the Republican Plan of the House of Representatives.
Republicans plan to use reconciliation, a tactic that requires only a simple majority to approve. But under reconciliation, both cameras must adopt exactly the same resolution.
“This is the first important step to open the reconciliation process. We have a lot of hard work ahead,” Johnson said after the vote. “We are going to deliver the first agenda of America. We will deliver everything, not only parts of it, and this is the first step of that process.”
The Republicans leaned on Trump to press the Holdouts and other members of the Republican Party who were undecided.
“The president has spoken with several members. He has made his intentions well known and wants them to vote for this and move it so we can start the process,” said Johnson.
But later on Tuesday, while signing executive orders in the Oval office, Trump said: “I am not involved in that. They know what I want.”
President of the Chamber of the Mike Johnson Chamber (R-LA) delivered comments after the Chamber approved the republican’s budget resolution on the expense bill on February 25, 2025 in the United States Capitol in Washington , Dc
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
Burchett told ABC News that he talked to Trump, but refused to disseminate details about the conversation.
Johnson was not sure if the vote would happen on Tuesday, which suggests that it could be pushed.
“There may be a vote tonight. There may not be. They are attentive. That is why they pay him. Time passes here,” he told the journalists.
The leader of the majority of the House of Representatives, Steve Scalise, defended the budget, arguing that the Democrats were “lying” when they affirmed that the Republicans are prepared to make deep cuts to Medicaid.
“This bill does not even mention the word ‘Medicaid’ for only once and, nevertheless, all Democrats are doing is lying about what is in the budget because they do not want to talk about the truth,” said Scalise. “Instead of simply sitting and licking their wounds that they are completely out of contact with the American people, their only option is to resort to lying about what is in this vote today. There is no doctorid in this bill. There is no doctorid cuts in this bill.
Although the plan itself does not mention Medicaid directly, it establishes an objective of at least $ 2 billion in cuts to mandatory federal expenses, which includes funds for law programs such as social security and Medicare.
The leader of the majority of the Chamber of Representatives of the United States Chamber, Steve Scalise, Republican of Louisiana, has a copy of the Chamber Republican Budget Law during a press conference after the conference meeting Republican, in Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on February 25, 2025.
Saul Loeb/AFP through Getty Images
Johnson and his leadership team worked for weeks to mold the concerns.
After a conference meeting behind closed doors on Tuesday, Massie joked that the leaders of the Republican party have “convinced” him to vote not, predict that the measure would really increase the deficit for billions of dollars.
Representative Thomas Massie talks to journalists when he arrives for a meeting of the Chamber’s Republican Caucus in the United States Capitol, on February 25, 2025, in Washington, DC, DC
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
However, Johnson defended the plan.
“The objective and our commitment have always been the neutrality of the deficit. That is the objective here. If we can reduce the deficit, even better,” said Johnson responding to the accusations that the plan would increase the deficit.
Some additional Republicans were undecided, including New York representative, Nicole Malliotakis, emphasizing that he was acting on behalf of his aged constituency.
“I am still undecided, but I am leaning more towards itself because I have had some clarity and guarantees that make me feel comfortable allowing this process to advance,” he said. “We have to make sure that leadership includes those of us who have great populations of Medicaid in that process.”
The self -proclaimed “Budget Hawk” by Georgia, Rich McCormick, said previously that he was still “in discussions” about whether or not the resolution supports.
“I would like us to be more aggressive in the expenses of expenses so that we can save on things such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid,” he said.
“I am trying to find out exactly what this implies … how this bill will affect real hard numbers, and that is what interests me,” he said.
The Democrats of the House of Representatives gathered in the steps of the Capitol on Tuesday afternoon to protest an “assault” to democracy and the “reckless republican budget.”
The minority leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, directed the group of legislators, declaring that the Democrats have unified their opposition against the measure.
“So let me be clear, the Chamber Democrats will not provide a single vote to this reckless republican budget, not one, not one, nor one. They will not get a single democratic vote. Why? Because we are voting with the American people “, said.
Jeffries said that the budget plan of the Republican Party “represents the greatest cut in Medicaid in the history of the United States,” and added that “children will be devastated. Families will be devastated. People with disabilities will be devastated. Be devastated.”
“Everything that matters to us is under assault. The economy is under assault. The security network is under assault. Our way of life as a country is under assault. Democracy itself is under assault. Donald Trump, the administration and republicans of The American people, “he said.
-ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
