President Donald J. Trump’s big, beautiful bill just mounted its first hurdle. Tuesday evening, the Congressional Budget Resolution (H. Con. Res. 14) establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2025 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2026 through 2034 passed on a largely party-line vote of 217 to 215. 

According to Punchbowl News, the budget resolution with $4.5 trillion for tax cuts and $1.5 trillion-plus in spending cuts was satisfactory to President Trump. There were several holdouts earlier in the evening, including Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN), and Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH). Because of this, the vote was suspended at first. Once House Speaker Mike Johnson and President Trump whipped them to convert their votes to YES, the vote was re-upped, with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) being the sole Republican to vote NO.

in my 15+ years covering congress, i’ve never seen the leadership cancel a vote, send lawmakers home and then abruptly switch course and put the vote up. all within the course of about 10 minutes.

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) February 26, 2025

On Friday, the Republican majority in the Senate passed their own budget resolution in two parts, the antithesis to what the House just approved.

The Senate’s adoption is an early step in the process, which requires detailed work by committees to work out the details of spending, as well as of any offsets to help pay for the additional funds.

The budget resolution is at odds with the House’s approach, and both chambers ultimately have to be on the same page to get the legislation across the finish line.