House GOP leaders this week will try to hold their narrow majority together on a sweeping budget blueprint that would require at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, which face resistance from some moderate Republicans as well as some in the Senate GOP.
The House GOP needs to win adoption of the fiscal 2025 budget resolution in order to clear the path for a later budget reconciliation bill needed to enact President Donald Trump’s spending and tax priorities. The House resolution would allow for up to $4.5 trillion in new and extended tax cuts.
With support from Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has insisted on doing one giant reconciliation bill that would include tax cuts. He says that the GOP’s razor-thin, 218-215 majority in the House likely means it will be difficult to move more than one reconciliation bill this year. “It has to be [one bill) by necessity, because that gives us the highest probability of success,” he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week.
The question is whether they can pass even one. Johnson is caught between Republicans in swing districts nervous about spending cuts, and the chamber's most hardline conservatives. They won a provision in the resolution that would limit the tax cuts to $4 trillion unless at least $2 trillion in spending is cut. On the other side, eight GOP members led by Texas Rep. Tony Gonzalez wrote Johnson last week, raising concerns about potential cuts to SNAP, Medicaid and Pell grants.
House Democrats are looking for enough GOP support to block the resolution's adoption. "There are 215 Democrats in the House. We only need three to stand up on behalf of their constituents. And that is going to be an ongoing effort over the next few days to identify those individuals," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told CNN on Sunday.
But in a post on X Sunday, House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, called on GOP colleagues to support the budget plan “to rein in our federal government and restore fiscal sanity to Washington. ... Let’s pass this budget and deliver President Trump’s FULL America First agenda!”
The resolution already appears to be dead in the Senate, which last week voted overwhelmingly against an amendment that included the $1.5 trillion in minimum spending cuts required by the House plan. Of that amount, $230 billion would likely come out of SNAP and require cuts to benefits.
The Senate GOP’s much more modest FY25 budget resolution, which was adopted 52-48 Friday, would increase funding for border security and the military but leave tax cuts for later and require as little as $5 billion in spending cuts.
The House Rules Committee meets Monday afternoon to prepare the House resolution for floor debate.
Also this week, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins hinted Saturday in a post on X that “big announcements” would be coming this week.
She didn’t provide any more information, but the administration has indicated it would soon release a new plan for combatting avian flu that would shift away from the longstanding strategy of depopulating flocks that are found to be infected.
USDA officials also have promised decisions are coming on programs that have been frozen since Trump took office. Rollins last week released $20 million in conservation program payments, but the administration has been holding up funding for a variety of other programs and initiatives, including the Rural Energy for America Program and the Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities projects.
Also on Capitol Hill this week, the Senate continues work on Trump’s nominees. Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has filed cloture on Jamieson Greer’s nomination to serve as the U.S. trade representative, setting up a final vote on him this week.
In his Senate Finance Committee hearing earlier this month, Greer endorsed several of Trump’s proposed trade policies, including adopting reciprocal tariffs and the use of tariffs as a revenue-raising tool. He also pledged to open new markets for U.S. agriculture and review China’s shortcomings under the phase one deal.
The USTR nominee would enter office at a pivotal time in U.S. trade relations. Absent another reprieve, new tariffs on Mexico and Canada are set to start March 1 and expanded steel and aluminum tariffs are slated to kick in March 12 – with U.S. trading partners poised to respond.
Questions remain over Greer’s prominence in the new administration given Trump’s own focus on trade policymaking and his elevation of voices like Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s and trade adviser Peter Navarro’s. But with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative working on an analysis of U.S. trade policy and co-leading a study into reciprocal tariffs, Greer is sure to be in the thick of the administration’s policy priorities.
Also this week, the Senate Agriculture Committee on Wednesday will hold the second of two days of hearings on the state of the farm economy.
While the first hearing focused on row crops, this hearing will feature witnesses from specialty crop sectors and the cattle, dairy, hog and poultry industries.
Here is a list of agriculture- or rural-related events scheduled for this week in Washington and elsewhere (all times EST):
Monday, Feb. 24
National Association of State Departments of Agriculture winter policy conference, through Wednesday, Conrad Washington.
4 p.m. – House Rules Committee meeting to consider the fiscal 2025 budget resolution, H-313 Capitol.
Tuesday, Feb. 25
9 a.m. – Brookings Institution forum, “How will Congress approach US-China relations? A conversation with Reps. John Moolenaar and Raja Krishnamoorthi,” 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW.
10 a.m. – House Energy-Water Appropriations subcommittee hearing on the civil works program, 2362-B Rayburn.
10 a.m. – House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing on trade enforcement priorities, 1100 Longworth.
Wednesday, Feb. 26
10 a.m. – Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, 406 Dirksen.
10:30 a.m. – House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing, "Examining the Biden Administration’s Energy and Environment Spending Push,” 2322 Rayburn.
10:30 a.m. – Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on the farm economy, 216 Hart.
Thursday, Feb. 27
Agricultural Outlook Forum, through Friday, Arlington, Virginia.
8:30 a.m. – USDA releases Weekly Export Sales report.
9:30 a.m. – Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee meeting to consider the nomination of Lori Chavez-DeRemer to be secretary of labor, 562 Dirksen.
10 a.m. – Washington International Trade Association forum, “Unpacking What’s Fair and Reciprocal."
Friday, Feb. 28
For more news, go to Agri-Pulse.com.
