(The Center Square) – The House passed a resolution Wednesday afternoon that advances the $9.4 billion rescissions package forward for a final vote.
Also tucked inside House Resolution 499 was an order to execute H.R. 492, which implements House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson’s, R-La., last-minute changes to the One Bill Beautiful Bill Act.
The unconventional move, called “sneaky” by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who voted against the resolution, allows Republicans to stick to their budget reconciliation timeline and keep the bill in compliance with Senate rules.
As The Center Square previously reported, Johnson’s changes to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act include nixing $2.5 billion for niche Pentagon programs and removing reforms to the problematic pandemic-era employee retention tax credit.
If these and 18 other obscure measures were not axed, the budget reconciliation bill would have violated the Senate’s Byrd Rule, which limits a budget reconciliation bill to spending, revenue and debt limit changes. If a budget reconciliation bill includes items deemed “extraneous” by the Senate’s parliamentarian, it no longer qualifies for reconciliation process privileges; namely, the overriding of the Senate filibuster.
Johnson and Majority Leader Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., will already have a hard enough time convincing the Republican majorities in both chambers to vote for the multitrillion-dollar bill.
Multiple GOP factions take issue with the contents of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, with fiscal hawks objecting to the cost of extending the expiring 2017 tax cuts and Republicans in vulnerable seats wary of spending reductions on Medicaid or phaseouts of the Inflation Reduction Act.
The rescissions package, which the House will vote on this Thursday, has received much stronger Republican backing.
Compiled by the Office of Management and Budget, the bill requests the cancellation of $9.4 billion in already appropriated spending. This includes $8.3 billion for non-life saving foreign assistance and $1.1 billion for public broadcasting systems.
As with the budget reconciliation bill, the rescissions package needs only a majority vote in both chambers in order to pass.
