US House Republicans advance Trump’s tax cut plan

WASHINGTON: The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives late on Tuesday advanced President Donald Trump’s tax-cut and border security agenda, delivering a major boost to his 2025 priorities.

The vote on passage was 217-215 with Representative Thomas Massie, a prominent fiscal hawk, as a lone Republican voting in opposition, and no Democrats supporting the controversial measure.

One Democrat did not vote.

The measure is a preliminary step to extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts later this year. Tuesday’s vote sent the budget resolution to the Senate, where Republicans are expected to take it up.

“We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we are going to deliver the American First agenda,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the vote.

“We’re going to celebrate tonight, and we’ll roll up our sleeves and get right back in the morning.”

The final vote came after Johnson and No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise spent hours persuading holdouts to back the move.

The measure’s passage followed an unusual series of maneuvers in which Johnson canceled a vote on the bill, because it lacked the votes for passage, and then promptly reversed course.

Both leaders said Trump himself had been contacting reluctant members about the need to advance the $4.5 trillion tax-cut plan, which would also fund the deportation of migrants living in the U.S. illegally, tighten border security, energy deregulation and military spending.

Several hardline conservatives sought deeper spending cuts and stronger control over separate government funding legislation to avert a potential shutdown after current funding expires on March 14.

Three Republican hardliners seen initially as firm no votes - Tim Burchett, Victoria Spartz and Warren Davidson - wound up voting for the measure in the end.

Doubts about House Republican unity prompted Senate Republicans to enact their own budget resolution as a Plan B ploy last week: a $340 billion measure that covers Trump’s border, defense and energy priorities but leaves the thornier issue of tax policy for later in the year.

Both chambers need to pass the same budget resolution to unlock a parliamentary tool that Republicans will need later this year to circumvent Democratic opposition and the Senate filibuster and enact legislation containing the Trump agenda.

The House budget seeks $2 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years to pay for Trump’s agenda.

Trump agenda faces reality check in Congress vote

The tax cuts Trump is seeking would extend breaks passed during his first term in office, his main legislative accomplishment, that are due to expire at the end of this year.

Passing a budget resolution is just the first deadline facing lawmakers in the coming months.

Lawmakers also need to enact fiscal 2025 spending legislation to keep federal agencies operating after current funding expires on March 14. Later this year they will need to act on the federal government’s self-imposed debt ceiling or risk triggering catastrophic default on its $36 trillion in debt.