Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Congress hasn’t enacted any legislation lately, mostly owing to a Trump-engineered logjam. The president and his MAGA allies are demanding things Democrats oppose and Republicans would prefer not to talk about, such as the noxious SAVE America Act and money to pay for Trump’s forever war in Iran. Getting Congress unstuck is job one for GOP leaders, so Speaker Mike Johnson is taking the lead on a new reconciliation bill that will pass without Democratic votes and placate Trump — or so he hopes.
The House just took the first step, as Politico reported:
House Republicans released a fiscal blueprint Wednesday morning for the $95 billion party-line funding package GOP leaders hope to pass later this summer.
Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) has scheduled a Thursday morning markup of the measure, which would unlock the reconciliation process to skirt the Senate filibuster and enact a bill that delivers up to $73 billion for the military and intelligence efforts, along with $12 billion for farm assistance.
The framework would also allow Republicans to devote another $10 billion for election-related matters. Some in the GOP are eyeing grants to encourage strict voter-ID laws, as House GOP leaders attempt to enact at least parts of the contentious SAVE America Act through the party-line reconciliation process.
There are several notable things about this draft budget resolution, which is designed to pave the way to a third budget-reconciliation bill (after last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act and last month’s immigration-enforcement funding measure). It gives Pete Hegseth a hefty chunk of change to pay for Iran costs but not the full $1.5 trillion defense-spending increase Trump has asked for; that will go into some sort of appropriations measure Democrats will have leverage over. Perhaps not coincidentally, the bill has no “offsets” for the new spending, no voter-offending Medicaid cuts or other supposed attacks on “fraud.” That will offend the conservative fiscal hawks in both chambers who are excited about gutting the social safety net as an end in itself.
Most interesting of all, the resolution assumes there’s some sort of budgetary answer to Trump’s incessant demands for the SAVE America Act. It was previously reported that Johnson was looking at a grant program that would give states a financial incentive to implement the proof-of-citizenship requirements at the core of the original SAVE America Act (but not the mail-voting crackdown or the transphobic provisions Trump touts as its “full version”). While the Senate parliamentarian is likely to rule that the SAVE America Act can’t be included in the reconciliation bill, this carrots-but-no-sticks approach may pass muster. And a grant program probably won’t disrupt the midterms like the prohibitions in Trump’s version of the legislation would.
The big question is whether this consolation prize will satisfy the president. The timing does make you wonder since Trump is apparently on the brink of devoting a prime-time address to the nation tomorrow night to an extended temper tantrum about alleged election fraud. If he objects, the whole reconciliation bill could quickly fall apart, even if it’s not thwarted by objections to its size or structure (or by the Senate GOP’s distaste for any additional reconciliation bill).
At this early stage in the budget process, it looks as though the White House is onboard. Vice-President J.D. Vance was dispatched to spread the word on Capitol Hill:
Inside the room: Vance is attempting to rally House GOP members in the conference meeting to support the reconciliation bill, multiple sources in the room tell me.
Vance also gave the White House’s full throated endorsement behind the budget resolution and as much of SAVE…
— Reese Gorman (@reesejgorman) July 15, 2026
Trump could very easily change his mind once he sees the actual details of the SAVE America Act grant program, which blue states will probably boycott entirely. And other problems remain:
The bill is running into problems with some fiscal hawks right now who want cuts and offsets.
— Reese Gorman (@reesejgorman) July 15, 2026
But for a legislative process that looked very stalled just a few days ago, it’s a start.
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