House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., reportedly was forced to delay an initial vote on President Donald Trump's legislative agenda.
Johnson and House GOP leaders had expressed plans to start the legislative process this week by advancing a budget resolution out of committee. However, The Hill reported Tuesday that a vote will not take place this week.
"There will not be a budget resolution markup this week," a source told The Hill. "Leadership provided an ambitious timeline and the House is doing the best it can to meet that."
The reason for the delay centers around Republican lawmakers debating how deep spending cuts should be, the outlet reported.
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a member of the House Budget Committee, told The Hill that leadership presented lawmakers with a framework that proposed $500 billion in spending cuts.
Norman, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said he's pushing for a bottom-line figure between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.
"I'd like it higher because I just don't have any confidence that if we set a floor of X billion, which doesn't begin to solve our math problem," Norman told the outlet. "I know $500 billion is a nonstarter, but whether we can get what amount as a level is, in my world it's just got to be there."
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, also a House Freedom Caucus member, told a San Antonio TV station last month that any reconciliation bill that cuts taxes but not spending was "the traditional kind of swamp game" and said that his "message to my Republican colleagues" was to "cut spending or get put in the ashbin of history," CNN reported.
"I believe that we should make permanent the Trump tax cuts from 2017," Roy said from the House floor last month. "What I do not believe in is making up numbers. What I do not believe in is magic fairy dust that says the budget will magically balance if you cut taxes and never cut spending. Because that's simply not true."
Although the budget reconciliation process will allow Republicans to get around Democrat opposition in the Senate, the House Budget Committee must approve the legislation. With several hard-line conservatives on the panel, spending cuts will be a pivotal part of the bill.
It has been reported Republicans are looking to pass one reconciliation bill that will extend the Trump tax cuts, pay for border security, and address energy policy.
While Johnson wants to send a bill to Trump's desk by Easter or Memorial Day, some GOP members say that will be difficult.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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