House passes Trump’s budget plan; here’s what happens next

WASHINGTON - The House has passed the Trump administration’s "big, beautiful bill" which outlines a Republican budget blueprint that includes trillions of dollars in tax breaks and spending cuts. 

The vote was 217-215, with all Democrats opposed, and the outcome was in jeopardy until the gavel.

"On a vote like this, you’re always going to have people you’re talking to all the way through the close of the vote," Majority Leader Steve Scalise said before the roll call. "It’s that tight."

More discussion and drafting

What's next:

The next steps are long and cumbersome before anything can become law — 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.

What’s in the package?

Dig deeper:

The package would be a crucial part of the budget process as President Donald Trump pushed the GOP to approve the massive bill that would extend $4.5 trillion in tax breaks while also cutting $2 trillion in spending. 

Several Republican lawmakers worried that the scope of the cuts eyed — particularly some $880 billion to the committee that handles health care spending, including Medicaid, for example, or $230 billion to the agriculture committee that funds food stamps — would be too harmful to their constituents back home.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., conducts a news conference in the Capitol Visitor Center on the potential budget resolution vote and other issues, after a meeting of the House Republican Conference on Tuesday, February 25, 2025.

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GOP leaders insisted Medicaid was not specifically listed in the initial 60-page budget framework, but lawmakers wanted assurances those programs would be protected as the plans are developed in the weeks to come.

Some Republican deficit hawks were withholding support until they were convinced it wouldn't add to the nation's $36 trillion debt load. They warned it would pile onto debt because the cost of the tax breaks — at least $4.5 trillion over the decade outweighed the $2 trillion in spending cuts to government programs.

What they’re saying: "While we fully support efforts to rein in wasteful spending and deliver on President Trump's agenda, it is imperative that we do not slash programs that support American communities across our nation," wrote Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, and several other GOP lawmakers in the Hispanic Conference.