Handful of Republicans Sink Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ in Key House Committee

The GOP never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity, once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

Making perfect the enemy of the good.

Handful of Republicans sink Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ in key House committee

The bill failed to pass the House Budget Committee on Friday

By Elizabeth Elkind, Tyler Olson, Fox New, May 16, 2025:

President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” failed to pass the House Budget Committee on Friday, in what appears to be a massive blow to House GOP leaders’ plans to hold a House-wide vote next week.

Republican Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma, Andrew Clyde of Georgia, and Ralph Norman of South Carolina, all voted against the legislation.

A fifth House Republican, Rep. Lloyd Smucker of Pennsylvania, also switched his vote from “yes” to “no,” though it was a procedural maneuver that allows him to bring the legislation up again. Smucker told reporters he was “quite confident” in the bill’s success.

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, said the panel would likely not meet again on Friday, and could reconvene on Monday.

The committee met to mark up and debate the bill, a massive piece of legislation that’s a product of 11 different House committees’ individual efforts to craft policy under their jurisdictions. The result is a wide-ranging bill that advances Trump’s priorities on the border, immigration, taxes, energy, defense and raising the debt limit.

Emotions ran high in the hallway outside the House Budget Committee’s meeting room from the outset, however, giving the media little indication of how events would transpire.

Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, who had been at home with his wife and newborn baby, surprised reporters when he arrived at the Cannon House Office Building after he was initially expected to miss the committee meeting.

His appearance gave House GOP leaders some added wiggle room, allowing the committee to lose two Republican votes and still pass the bill, rather than just one.

But at least four House Republicans went into the meeting warning they were opposed to the bill.

Shortly before the meeting was expected to begin, Roy, Norman, Clyde and Brecheen abruptly left the room while saying little to reporters on the way out.

Each came back a short while later and criticized the legislation in their opening remarks.

The fiscal hawks are frustrated about provisions curbing Medicaid in the bill not going into effect until 2029, and had similar issues with the delay in phasing out green energy subsidies from former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act.

“Only in Washington are we expected to bet on the come that in five years, then everything will work. Then we will solve the problem,” Roy said during debate. “We have got to change the direction of this town. And to my colleagues and other side of the aisle, yes, that means touching Medicaid.

Continued….