Tensions between House and Senate Republicans are already complicating the GOP’s latest reconciliation push, with House lawmakers openly questioning whether senators can be trusted to preserve key priorities in the party-line spending package.
Vice President JD Vance met privately with House Republicans on Wednesday to reassure skeptical conservatives after leadership unveiled the $95 billion framework, but lawmakers said concerns remain over whether the Senate would keep provisions such as the SAVE America Act intact.
“He was answering questions about what’s included, what’s not included, how we’re going to defend against the Senate stripping it,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
The skepticism stems from months of friction between the chambers. House Republicans spent weeks pressing the Senate to take up the SAVE America Act. The legislation, which requires voter ID to cast a ballot and proof of citizenship to register to vote, stalled in the Senate after being unable to overcome the 60-vote filibuster threshold. Republicans only have a 53-47 seat majority in the Senate.
Complicating matters is that it’s unclear exactly what portions of the SAVE America Act will be included in the $95 billion legislation, which includes more than $60 billion in supplemental military funding. Conservatives have called for the entire bill to be added to the package, while leadership has suggested that the better path forward might be to include money incentivizing states to adopt voter ID laws. Yet, even that might be struck down by the Senate’s strict parliamentary procedure governing the budget reconciliation process, which allows some tax and spending measures to skirt the filibuster and pass by simple majority.
“I think lack of trust and concern over ‘would we get the real SAVE America Act?’” Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) told the Washington Examiner.
“If we get full SAVE, I’m in,” Fine added.
Rep. Michael Cloud (R-TX) similarly told the Washington Examiner that House Republicans want assurances the Senate won’t strip SAVE Act language before sending the package back to the House.
That distrust has only deepened since negotiations over President Donald Trump‘s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” when House Republicans watched the Senate rewrite or scale back several of their priorities before the legislation became law.
“That’s a $64 question, so stay tuned,” Rep. Randy Weber (R-TX) told the Washington Examiner when asked if the Senate will get the job done.
Senate distrust wasn’t Vance’s only challenge. Fiscal conservatives also pressed the vice president over the lack of spending cuts to offset the proposed $95 billion package.
The House Budget Committee is set to mark up a resolution on Thursday kick-starting the reconciliation process. House GOP leadership is hoping to advance the measure on the House floor next week, before lawmakers leave for August recess. Yet, not everyone supports the expedited timeline.
HOUSE GOP RELEASES BUDGET FRAMEWORK FOR $95 BILLION RECONCILIATION BILL
“I think the stupidest thing to do would be to try to jam it through committee when we got bigger problems on the House floor, and I think that might be the current state of affairs,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) told reporters Wednesday. “While some of us are trying to work in good faith to figure out how to move the ball forward, but we still have concerns and problems, it would be a mistake to move it to the floor, even if you can get it through committee, which is unclear.”
“I don’t think that we’re even going to get there,” Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) told reporters when asked if the framework will pass next week.