House Republican leadership is aiming to muscle through a budget resolution Tuesday that would serve as a blueprint to pass large swaths of President Trump’s agenda.
The chamber advanced the GOP budget resolution on Tuesday afternoon, teeing up for a final vote despite internal opposition of the measure.
Opposition has emerged from all sides of the conference, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and his leadership team are scrambling to shore up support. Johnson can afford only one GOP defection, assuming full attendance on both sides.
Senate Republicans have already adopted their own, slimmed-down version of the resolution, but Trump has expressed a preference for the House’s plan. The president on Tuesday began reaching out to weary lawmakers in an effort to garner support for the lower chamber’s plan
The final vote is expected Tuesday evening.
Also on Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shared that tech billionaire Elon Musk will join President Trump alongside his Cabinet for its first meeting on Wednesday.
She also announced that the White House Correspondents’ Association will no longer oversee the White House press pool amid the executive branch’s tense relationship with the media.
Follow along with live updates below.
House GOP adopts Trump budget after topsy-turvy night
House Republicans adopted the budget resolution that will lay the foundation for enacting President Trump’s legislative agenda Tuesday night, just minutes after they initially pulled the measure from the floor.
The legislation was approved in a 217-215 vote.
It capped a wild evening in the House chamber that saw Republican leaders hold open an unrelated vote for more than an hour to buy time to win over holdouts, announce they were canceling a vote on the legislation, and reverse course just 10 minutes later.
The tally also marked a dramatic turnaround for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House GOP leaders, who hours earlier were facing opposition to the measure from four deficit hawks, skepticism among some other hardliners, and apprehension from moderates concerned about potential slashes to social safety net measures.
House returns to the floor for budget vote
Moments after pulling a vote on its budget resolution, House Republicans are coming back to the floor to hold the vote, a source familiar told The Hill.
In a stunning scene on the House floor earlier in the evening, top Republican lawmakers appeared to have decided to scrap plans to vote on the measure after lobbying holdouts in the chamber for more than an hour. They kept the previous vote remained open for far longer than anticipated, allowing leaders to speak with those opposed to the measure.
The House GOP whip’s office announced Republicans were punting on the vote, before leaders apparently changed course.
House GOP pulls budget resolution, signaling Republicans lack votes
House GOP leaders pulled their budget resolution from the floor at the last minute Tuesday evening after they were unable to win over a handful of conservative fiscal hawks who threatened to tank the framework for President Trump’s ambitious legislative agenda.
In a stunning scene on the House floor, top Republican lawmakers decided to scrap plans to vote on the measure after lobbying holdouts in the chamber for more than an hour. They kept the previous vote remained open for far longer than anticipated, allowing leaders to speak with those opposed to the measure.
Trump on Monday and Tuesday even personally talked to holdouts — who included fiscal hawks skeptical about its effect on deficits and moderates concerned about potential cuts to Medicaid — trying to get their support for the “one big beautiful bill.”
Their effort, however, appears to have failed, an embarrassing development for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and his leadership team as they look to enact Trump’s domestic policy priorities.
Davidson holds firm, while Burchett, Massie huddle
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) appears to be holding firm in his opposition to the budget resolution minutes before the vote.
“Congress is unwilling to cut anything for 3/14. Their promises to hold discretionary spending flat for 10 years are not credible. Same plan as always: surrender now with a hollow promise to fight later. I can’t support that,” he posted on X within around 6:25 p.m. EST.
Meanwhile, spotted in the back of the House chamber: Chief Deputy Whip Guy Reschenthaler is talking to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), and Majority Leader Steve Scalise is talking to Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn). Massie and Burchett were two of the budget hawks who said they’d vote no ahead of the vote.
Scalise: House vote on budget resolution still on for tonight
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) told reporters on Tuesday that the plan still to hold a vote on the resolution around 6 pm.
“We’re still shooting for around six,” he told reporters moments ago.
“We’ve been talking to everybody who was expressed different issues, and working through those challenges,” he also said.
Shutdown fight collides with GOP push for Trump priorities
The race to prevent a government shutdown next month is colliding with Republican efforts to enact President Trump’s tax and funding priorities.
Congressional negotiators have been struggling for weeks to strike a bipartisan deal that would keep the government funded past a mid-March deadline. At the same time, House Republicans are racing to pass a bill through the budget reconciliation process that would contain large swaths of Trump’s agenda. The House is set to vote on a budget resolution that would be the blueprint for that eventual bill on Tuesday.
Farmers, green groups sue USDA over ‘unlawful purge’ of climate data
Farmers and green groups sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Monday for an “unlawful purge” of climate data from its website.
“This lawsuit challenges the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s unlawful purge of climate-related policies, guides, datasets, and resources from its websites, without any advance notice as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act, without engaging in reasoned decision-making as required by the Administrative Procedure Act, and in violation of its obligation under the Freedom of Information Act to publish certain information proactively,” the filing reads.
The organizations involved include Earthjustice and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which are representing the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group.
Zelensky expected to visit White House amid push for minerals deal
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to visit the White House on Friday as Kyiv and the Trump administration work to finalize an agreement on critical minerals.
President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he heard Zelensky was visiting on Friday, “and certainly it’s OK with me if he’d like to.”
Trump directs investigation preceding potential copper tariffs
President Trump on Tuesday directed his Commerce secretary to investigate the need for possible tariffs on copper, the latest industry to potentially be targeted by Trump’s sweeping trade agenda.
“Like our steel and aluminum industries, our great American copper industry has been decimated by global actors attacking our domestic production,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a statement. “To build back our copper industry, I will investigate the imposition of possible tariffs. Tariffs can help build back our American copper industry if necessary and strengthen our national defense.”
White House names interim DOGE administrator
The White House on Tuesday disclosed that the interim administrator of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is Amy Gleason after repeated questioning from reporters.
A White House official confirmed to The Hill that Gleason is serving in an acting capacity. Gleason is a former official at the U.S. Digital Service, which Trump rebranded as DOGE via executive order.
Senate Democrats press Trump’s FTC commissioner nominee
Multiple Senate Democrats on the Commerce, Science and Transportation on Tuesday pressed President Trump’s Federal Trade Commissioner nominee, Mark Meador, over the independence of the agency amid concerns the White House could seek to influence the agency’s enforcement efforts.
Meador, who appeared before the committee for his confirmation hearing, largely maintained he plans to “serve the American people.”
“There is a sense of credibility, like, I would imagine you believe, that for FTC, for its rulings to be considered, for it have the kind of resonance with the American people about a sense of fairness, that credibility is critical for the FTC to be able to function,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) told Meador Tuesday.
“I would believe that for the FTC to make decisions that are potentially going to be controversial around Big Tech, it’s important that it be seen as being done from a sense of what’s right for the American people and a sense of fairness, rather than something that’s political or something that’s associated with a political donor or special interest group, is that right?” Kim added.
Meador seemingly agreed in his reply.
“The way I would view my job, if confirmed, is to show up each day working to serve the American people and enforcing the law the way that it has been written,” Meador, a partner at an antitrust law firm, responded. “And while I can’t speak for the other commissioners, I’m confident that they share that view as well.”
Spartz still a ‘no’ on budget bill, Ogles a ‘lean no’
Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) said she still intends to vote “no” on the House GOP’s budget resolution, despite voting to advance it earlier in the day.
“It didn’t change and I said, you know, I don’t change my position,” Spartz told reporters, referring to the budget resolution.
Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), meanwhile, told The Hill he is currently a “lean no.”
Though both voted to advance the measure to a final vote, members of the majority party in the House typically vote for a rule while the minority party opposes it, regardless of how lawmakers plan to vote on the underlying bill. In the last Congress, however, conservatives torpedoed rules several times to protest leadership’s handling of bills.
Thune urges Musk to treat federal workers ‘respectfully’
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Tuesday urged Elon Musk and his team at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to treat federal workers respectfully as they look to cut wasteful programs and improve efficiency in government.
While Thune said he supports the effort to shrink the federal bureaucracy and overhaul programs that have grown steadily larger and more complex over the last several decades, Thune advised Musk to keep in mind the human element of cutting jobs and funding.
Dem absences could help GOP pass their budget
House Democratic absences on Tuesday could help GOP leaders move their massive budget blueprint through the lower chamber.
With just a hairline majority, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has raced for weeks to unite a divided GOP behind the budget package, which would advance the largest pieces of President Trump’s domestic agenda. If all House lawmakers are present, he could afford only one GOP defection and still pass the bill, which is scheduled for a vote Tuesday at 6 p.m.
But in the first vote series on Tuesday afternoon, four Democrats were absent from the chamber. If that number holds — and Republicans have full participation — Johnson’s cushion would jump from one allowable defection to three.
It’s for that reason that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) had penned a letter to all the members of his Democratic Caucus on Monday urging full participation in the budget vote.
“Given the expected closeness of the vote, it’s imperative that we are present with maximum attendance,” Jeffries wrote.
The four Democratic lawmakers who missed Tuesday’s early votes were Reps. Kevin Mullin (Calif.), who recently suffered an infection following knee surgery; Brittany Pettersen (Colo.), who recently gave birth to her second child; Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.), who has spent most of the last year being treated for lung cancer; and Frederica Wilson (Fla.).
It’s unclear if any of those lawmakers are planning to be present for the 6 p.m. budget vote.
NYT reporter says Trump handling press like Soviet Kremlin
Peter Baker, a leading reporter at The New York Times, blasted President Trump’s White House over its decision to take control of the press pool covering the president and ban The Associated Press from key White House spaces.
“Having served as a Moscow correspondent in the early days of [Vladimir] Putin’s reign, this reminds me of how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access,” Baker wrote on the social platform X on Tuesday afternoon. “The message is clear. Given that the White House has already kicked one news organization out of the pool because of coverage it does not like, it is making certain everyone else knows that the rest of us can be barred too if the president does not like our questions or stories.”
White House says follow agency heads, not Musk, on employee directive
The White House on Tuesday said Cabinet secretaries would have final say over whether employees need to respond to an Elon Musk-inspired memo asking workers to list five accomplishments from the past week.
Musk has spurred confusion with his call for federal workers to send their bosses a list of accomplishments, or face termination. But press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that President Trump was giving agency heads final say on whether employees needed to reply at all.
House GOP advances budget resolution as conservative opponents hold firm
House Republicans advanced their budget resolution to enact President Trump’s legislative agenda on Tuesday, teeing the measure up for a final vote even as GOP opponents of the measure appeared to hold firm.
The chamber voted 217-211 along party lines to adopt the rule — which governs debate on legislation — for the House GOP’s budget resolution. The conference is looking to use the blueprint to pass Trump’s domestic policy priorities, including border funding, energy policy and tax cuts.
The fate of the budget resolution, however, remains unclear. The chamber is scheduled to vote on the measure’s final adoption around 6 p.m. on Tuesday, but that timeline could slip as opposition from conservative budget hawks puts the legislation in jeopardy.
“There may be a vote tonight, may not be,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at a press conference earlier on Tuesday. “Stay tuned.”
Trump whips House GOP budget resolution holdouts
President Trump is calling key holdouts as GOP leaders aim to get the last few members on board with the budget resolution, Speaker Johnson (R-La.) said, adding the president is “letting his desire be known.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who has stated his opposition to the measure, walked into the House chamber just behind Johnson on the phone — reporters believe with Trump.
Johnson says the House is still on track for a 6:30 vote on the budget resolution. The chamber advanced the measure past a procedural hurdle Tuesday afternoon.
Democrats warn of ‘largest Medicaid cut in American history’
House Democrats are ramping up their attacks on the GOP’s budget plan, warning that the massive spending blueprint would translate into the steepest Medicaid cut in the program’s history.
Behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), the Democrats are vowing unanimous opposition to the budget resolution when GOP leaders bring it to the floor, which could happen as early as Tuesday evening.
Medicaid is not the only piece of the GOP budget inspiring the Democrats’ opposition. But as the resolution inches closer to the floor, it’s the issue they’re pointing to most frequently, warning that Republicans have designs to slash Medicaid to help offset the cost of extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
“The Republican budget represents the largest Medicaid cut in American history,” Jeffries said Tuesday from the steps of the Capitol. “Children will be devastated. Families will be devastated. People with disabilities will be devastated. Seniors will be devastated. Hospitals will be devastated. Nursing homes will be devastated.”
“So let me be clear: House Democrats will not provide a single vote to this reckless Republican budget. Not one.”
Musk to join Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Wednesday
Tech billionaire Elon Musk is set to join President Trump’s Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the White House announced Tuesday.
“Elon, considering he is working alongside the president and our Cabinet secretaries — this entire administration will be in attendance tomorrow,” press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Trump is set to host his first Cabinet meeting on his second term at the White House, which comes about a month after his inauguration.
White House to take over press pool amid ‘Gulf of America’ fight with AP
The White House on Tuesday said it would take over which outlets are allowed into the press pool covering the president, wresting such control from the White House Correspondents Association.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said moving forward, the White House press pool, a small group of reporters who travel with and cover the president’s daily activities, will now be determined by administration officials. Traditionally, the press pool is coordinated by the Correspondent’s Association, which White House officials across multiple administrations have traditionally given deference to.
71 percent of Trump voters oppose Medicaid cuts: Poll
Most President Trump voters say they oppose any cuts to Medicaid as Republican lawmakers wrestle with how to reach up to $2 trillion in budget cuts through their reconciliation bill, a poll released Monday found.
The poll from Hart Research conducted for the nonprofit Families over Billionaires, which advocates in opposition to tax cuts for the wealthy, found 71 percent of voters who backed Trump said cutting Medicaid would be unacceptable. Voters overall were even more opposed to it, with 82 percent saying so.
Senate confirms Vance adviser as Army secretary
The Senate on Tuesday voted to confirm Daniel Driscoll, an Army 1st lieutenant-turned-businessman, as President Trump’s Army secretary. He most recently served as a senior adviser to Vice President Vance.
Driscoll, 38, received bipartisan support during his confirmation hearing late last month and was confirmed in a 66-28 vote in the full Senate. Vance read out the results.
House GOP budget resolution on thin ice as conservatives dig in on opposition
The House GOP’s budget resolution is on thin ice as conservative budget hawks dig in on their opposition, threatening to derail Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) plans to bring the legislation up for a vote Tuesday.
At least four Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.), Victoria Spartz (Ind.), Warren Davidson (Ohio) and Tim Burchett (Tenn.) — said they plan to vote against the measure when it hits the floor Tuesday evening, airing gripes related to spending. Burchett said there are at least five opponents, signaling the resistance is larger behind the scenes.
The hardened opposition has already prompted leadership to change its projections for a vote. After announcing Monday night that the House would vote on the budget resolution Tuesday night, Johnson opened the door to delaying that timeline.
“There may be a vote tonight, may not be,” he said at a press conference Tuesday morning. “Stay tuned.”
Progressives launch campaign against Trump, GOP tax agenda
Progressives have launched their first organized campaign against Republicans’ tax agenda, urging Democratic lawmakers and activists to fight jointly against what they say will be tax breaks for billionaires.
“It’s a con, it’s a grift,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said at a press conference with Congressional Progressive Caucus members Tuesday. They argued the tax cuts plotted by Trump would leave wealth concentrated with the top 1 percent.
House Oversight Democrats launch probe of US Attorney for DC
House Oversight Democrats have launched an investigation into the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia after he publicized his own efforts to probe threats to officials, an effort that has since targeted two Democratic lawmakers.
The inquiry is not just focused on prosecutor Ed Martin’s recent letters to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Robert García (D-Calif.) accusing them of threatening Supreme Court justices and Elon Musk, respectively.
It also focuses on a Monday social media post from Martin referring to prosecutors like himself “as President Trump’s lawyers.”
The eight-page letter from Oversight and Government Reform Committee ranking member Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) to Martin recaps a series of actions taken by Martin in just a month on the job, including two letters Martin posted on social media pledging to go after anyone who interfered with Musk’s aides.
Johnson moves forward on budget plan as ‘no’ votes hold firm
House GOP leaders are moving forward with “one big, beautiful bill” to advance President Trump’s agenda.
But Reps. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) and Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) told The Hill on Tuesday morning they are still “no” votes on the bill.
Johnson can afford to lose only one GOP vote, assuming full attendance on both sides.
A procedural vote is slated for 1:30 p.m. EST, and a final vote is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Johnson appeared to give himself a little wiggle room during a morning press conference.
“We’re planning to take up our budget resolution as early as today,” he said.
He later added, “There may be a vote tonight, there may not be. Stay tuned.”
Massie shifts from ‘lean no’ to ‘solid no’ on budget plan
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said he went into conference today a “lean no” on the budget resolution but is now a “solid no.”
“They convinced me. I was a lean no until this meeting. Now I’m a no,” he said.
He pointed to the GOP’s talking points that show an increase in the deficit because of the budget resolution.
ICYMI: Senate Republicans criticize Musk over email to government employees
Senate Republicans on Monday criticized Elon Musk’s directive for federal government employees to lose their jobs if they did not send in a bullet-pointed summary of what they did last week at work, describing it as a rash decision that was not handled well.
The email asking what they accomplished over the past week had set a deadline of Monday at midnight for responses. However, that was walked back by the Office of Personnel Management when it told departments and agencies that they could ignore that email.
Nevertheless, some Senate GOP members took issue with Musk’s request as he continues his push to cut the ranks of federal workers.
“I don’t think it was handled very well in terms of the surprise element of it or what the point of it was,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) said. “That, I think, was confusing because I think there were a couple different explanations.”
Warren Davidson a ‘no’ on budget resolution
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) told The Hill he will not support the House GOP’s budget resolution.
He said he wants leadership to “communicate a binding plan for discretionary spending ahead of March 14,” which is the government funding deadline.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) can only afford to lose one vote on the budget resolution, assuming full attendance on both sides.