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House passes budget resolution after dramatic vote
The House voted Tuesday to adopt a budget resolution that highlights President Trump's priorities on the border, defense, energy and taxes. The vote was 217-215, with all Democrats opposed.
WASHINGTON - House Republicans on Tuesday narrowly sent a GOP budget blueprint for passage, a step toward delivering President Donald Trump’s "big, beautiful bill" with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts.
But despite claims on social media that it included Trump’s campaign pledges to cut taxes on overtime and tips, the framework that passed on Tuesday is only a budget resolution meant to guide Congress on related legislation for the year. It does not provide funding for federal programs or change tax law.
Did no tax on overtime pass?
The backstory:
Trump wants the Republicans who control Congress to approve a massive bill that would extend tax breaks, which he secured during his first term but are expiring later this year, while also cutting spending on federal programs and services. During his campaign, he also pledged to end taxes on overtime pay, as well as on other things like tips and Social Security.
Trump's no-tax-on-overtime proposal: What to know
President Donald Trump has pledged to end taxes on overtime pay, as well as other things like tips and Social Security.
Dig deeper:
The budget resolution vote was 217-215. All Democrats voted against the measure, along with lone Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who was concerned about its effect on the national deficit. Its passage is crucial to kickstarting the whole budget process, but the next steps will be long and cumbersome before anything – including no taxes on overtime – can become law.
US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, center, speaks to members of the media as he walks to his office at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Feb. 25, 2025. Photographer: Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The other side:
Democrats during an afternoon debate referred to the package as a "betrayal" to Americans, a "blueprint for American decline" and simply a "Republican rip-off." They criticized potential cuts to Medicaid and other social programs.
Meanwhile, several Republican lawmakers have also expressed worry that the scope of the cuts being eyed — particularly some $880 billion over the decade to the committee that handles health care spending, including Medicaid, or $230 billion to the agriculture committee that funds food stamps — will be too harmful to their constituents back home.
GOP leaders insist Medicaid is not specifically listed in the initial 60-page budget framework, which is true. House Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team also told lawmakers they would have plenty of time to debate the details as they shape the final package.
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What's next:
The next step toward Trump's budget is weeks of committee hearings to draft the details and send the House version to the Senate, where Republicans passed their own scaled-back version. And more big votes are ahead, including an unrelated deal to prevent a government shutdown when federal funding expires March 14. Those talks are also underway.
The Source: This story was reported using information shared by the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. House of Representatives, and lawmakers. It was reported from Cincinnati, and the Associated Press and FOX News contributed.