Trump’s ‘One Big, Beautiful Bill’ Hits Snag In Critical Vote

President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” hit a major roadblock in Congress on Friday as GOP infighting stalled progress.

The House Budget Committee failed to advance its portion of the bill in a 16-21 vote, with five Republicans joining Democrats over a dispute on the degree and timing of efforts to rein in the deficit, benefits, and environmental programs.

The outcome is a blow to House GOP leadership, which hopes to get the overall bill passed by Memorial Day. Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) said he did not expect the panel to meet again on Friday and suggested it could take another crack at the legislation on Sunday evening.

With negotiations poised to stretch into the weekend, members will have to consider that certain alterations to placate the GOP holdouts might alienate other Republicans.

One of the GOP defectors, Rep. Lloyd Smucker (R-PA), explained on X that he “fully” supports the “one big, beautiful bill” and his vote was a “procedural requirement to preserve the committee’s opportunity to reconsider the motion to advance” it.

The other Republicans who opposed the legislation included conservative Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Josh Brecheen (R-OK), and Ralph Norman (R-SC). Doing more to shrink the deficit, benefit reform, and repealing the “Green New Scam” are among their priorities.

“Reps. Roy, Norman, Brecheen, Clyde and others continue to work in good faith to enact the President’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ — we were making progress before the vote in the Budget Committee and will continue negotiations to further improve the reconciliation package,” the House Freedom Caucus said in a post on X. “We are not going anywhere and we will continue to work through the weekend.”

Trump, who wrapped up a tour through the Middle East this week, had called on Republicans to pass the overall tax and budget bill to implement various priorities of his second term.

“Republicans MUST UNITE behind, ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’ Not only does it cut Taxes for ALL Americans, but it will kick millions of Illegal Aliens off of Medicaid to PROTECT it for those who are the ones in real need,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“The Country will suffer greatly without this Legislation, with their Taxes going up 65%,” he added. “It will be blamed on the Democrats, but that doesn’t help our Voters. We don’t need “GRANDSTANDERS” in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE! It is time to fix the MESS that Biden and the Democrats gave us. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

Other House committees advanced their respective parts of the bill this week, but there are certain matters within those pieces that might need to change in order for a sufficient number of Republicans and their slim majority to rally around the final product, including the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap.

Democrats who are focused on pushing back on Trump’s agenda celebrated the House Budget Committee snafu.

“BREAKING: We just stopped the Republican budget bill in committee,” Rep. Brandon Boyle (D-PA) said on X. “Whether it’s adding trillions to the debt, massive giveaways to billionaires, or millions of Americans kicked off their health care, Republicans know how unpopular this bill is. We won’t stop fighting back.”

If and when the “one big, beautiful bill” gets passed through the House, it will head to the Senate, which also has a narrow GOP majority. There, the measure could also have a difficult time as some Republicans have already voiced objections to its handling of Medicaid and spending cuts.