House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told Newsmax on Wednesday that now that the House has passed President Donald Trump's "big beautiful" budget bill, the Senate needs to realize that the legislation is all about enacting the president's agenda.
"No one is going to like 100% of this bill," the Kentucky Republican said on "Wake Up America." "It's very difficult to get to 218 in the House and then 50 in the Senate — which is what it's going to take for the budget reconciliation bill — but I think that, hopefully, the senators realize what a lot of our moderate Republicans realized [in the House], and that is that this is the Trump agenda.
"This is what President Trump campaigned on, and this is what the American people voted for. We have one opportunity to pass this big, beautiful bill, as President Trump calls it and now is the time.
"We did our job in the House," he said. "Hopefully the Senate will put their fingerprints on it, then it comes back to the House, we can negotiate the changes and pass the bill. That's how a bill becomes a law. This bill has followed regular order where all the committees, including my House Oversight Committee, passed their portion of jurisdiction. This is the way it's supposed to work and hopefully the senators will follow the House's lead and pass their version of the bill."
While at least four Republican senators have expressed opposition to the bill, citing debt concerns, Comer said that Trump will "weigh in on any senator who's wavering," as the president looks to move the legislation underpinning his campaign promises through the upper chamber and to his desk for signature.
Addressing criticism from Trump adviser and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Chair Elon Musk about the measure, Comer said that "the budget reconciliation can only deal with mandatory spending," which includes "anything pertaining to Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, federal employee benefits, things like that.
"A lot of what Musk is focused on, and done a tremendous job, is discretionary spending, not mandatory spending," Comer said. "So, I think we're going to do everything we can. I know the conservatives like myself and people like Ted Cruz, we want to pass the DOGE cuts, but we've been instructed by President Trump to focus on the budget reconciliation bill, which, again, is mandatory spending, not discretionary spending."
"I know it's a little confusing, but once we get this big, beautiful bill, I think you're going to see more of these DOGE-recommended cuts pass through Congress," he said. "That's my hope anyway. So, I believe at the end of the day, if Musk will work with us on this, I believe that we can accomplish everyone's goal and the goal is to get the backs of American taxpayers and get runaway spending under control."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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