House GOP scrambles to tee up reconciliation 3.0 while facing competing pressures

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Republican leaders are scrambling to try to tee up a third party-line budget bill by the end of the week, aiming to deliver on a framework before the midterm campaign season gets into full swing but facing internal divisions that complicate the path for the bill.

President Trump wants to take action on a boost to Pentagon spending amid the war in Iran, as well as voting restriction measures in the vein of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act. Fiscal hawks, meanwhile, are demanding that all new spending is paid for and offset with cuts. And the bill could complicate messaging for swing-district members hoping to avoid new lines of attack.

“I’ll take a look at the package in its totality, but we have to remember that the country is at stake right now, and we’ve got a series of terrible problems,” Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) said. “Adding to the deficit is clearly something I don’t want to do, but we have to look at what the consequence is if we don’t do it.”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday said the House Budget Committee will meet to discuss and advance a third budget reconciliation bill — known as reconciliation 3.0 — on Thursday, after he hammered out some details with Republicans on the panel and White House officials at Camp David on Monday.

Republicans have been tight-lipped about what exactly will be in the bill, but it is expected to include a boost in Pentagon funding, a grant program to encourage states to adopt voter ID and other restrictions in the President Trump-pushed SAVE America Act, and measures to address what Republicans say is fraud in federal programs.

House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said Tuesday that Republicans were “very close” to having bill text ready. But given the complexities of managing the conference and members’ demands, he added, the text would be subject to change.

“Listen, this is going to be a work in progress,” Arrington said. “It’s been a work in progress to date. When we open it up in our markup, it will continue to be a work in progress.”

Arrington’s committee, which is full of fiscal hawks, was the center of early hiccups for what eventually became the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of Trump’s tax cut and spending priorities legislation — the first reconciliation bill. This time, Arrington said, members will “be ready to go.”

But one member of the panel, Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.), is already signaling discontent with the reconciliation package as it stands, expressing frustration because she was not included in the meeting at Camp David, according to Punchbowl News.

“I remain committed to passing a strong reconciliation bill that delivers on the conservative priorities Americans sent us here to accomplish alongside President Trump: securing our border, strengthening our national defense, protecting our elections, combating fraud, and lowering costs. But we have to get this right. I have serious concerns about the current framework as it’s been proposed,” Houchin said on the social platform X following the meeting in response to that reporting.

Debates over whether to offset any boost in defense spending are also a factor in GOP resistance to the bill.

The White House has said it wants a $350 billion defense spending boost to be included as part of the package — a request that comes as munitions have been depleted amid the war in Iran. The final number, though, is unclear.

Johnson said House Republicans would get a briefing from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday evening on the White House’s $350 billion request.

“I think you have to see what we get in return for that,” Fine said when asked whether he’s comfortable that billions of dollars in defense funding may or may not be completely offset.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), the House Freedom Caucus policy chair and a member of the House Budget Committee, signaled he is willing to bend even as he would like to see the spending fully paid for.

“People like me want to pay for everything, so you know getting a little hung up on some of those issues,” Roy said. “But you know, if it’s a reasonably targeted amount on defense, and we’re dealing with these — you know, trying to force the Senate’s hand on SAVE America, then we’ll see if we can get it done.”

“I’m not one that wants to swallow lack of offsets. When you have a three-seat majority, you got to figure out how to move. So we’re working through that as we speak,” Roy said.

Other Republicans say it is unrealistic to get full pay-fors.

“No way you’re going to be able to offset 60, 80, 100 billion dollars altogether,” Rep. Nick LaLota (R-N.Y.) argued. “You got to fight the fight that you’re in right now and make sure that our military has the right resources that we need.”

Johnson is also aiming to advance a grant program inspired by the SAVE America Act that would create a fund states could tap to implement provisions of the measure. It is an attempt to work around the Senate’s Byrd Rule, which sets strict budgetary requirements for what can be included in a reconciliation bill.

But hard-line conservatives have railed against the proposal, arguing the grant program would merely be on an incentive basis.

Roy said that if the SAVE America Act provisions are not “mandatory here — on ensuring that the voter rolls are correct, citizenship is being checked, voter ID is being checked — then we’ve got a real problem.”

“What we send over has got to be pretty well iron-proof,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who has also advocated for the SAVE America Act to be in the reconciliation bill in its entirety.

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Chip Roy

Erin Houchin

Jodey Arrington

Mike Johnson

Nicolas LaLota

Pete Hegseth

Randy Fine

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