The House on Thursday passed its budget reconciliation bill in a 215-214, party-line vote. The bill now heads to the Senate.
The bill, which spans over 1,000 pages, encompasses various Republican priorities, including tax reform, agricultural programs, changes to Medicaid, and the expiration of clean energy tax credits.
The House Agriculture Committee’s portion of the bill would cut roughly $290 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over 10 years, while including roughly $60 billion of those funds to authorize and fund portions of the next Farm Bill.
The SNAP savings would come primarily from a cost-share program with the states, as well as work requirements imposed on Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs).
The House Ways and Means Committee’s portion of the package includes a permanent extension of most of the first Trump administration’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The tax portion of the bill also includes some campaign promises from President Trump, including no tax on tips or overtime through 2028 and a temporary increase in the child tax credit.
The price tag for the Ways and Means Committee’s portion of the bill is expected to be in the $3.8 trillion range.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s portion of the package makes numerous changes to Medicaid, including the implementation of work requirements.
These bills were combined into a single package, which was passed through the House Budget Committee, the House Rules Committee, and finally the House floor.
Attention now turns to the Senate, which will consider changes to the legislation. Once passed by the Senate, both chambers will have to reconcile differences before sending a final bill to the president’s desk.
The Department of the Treasury has said it expects the X-date, or the date at which the Treasury is likely to run out of authorized funds to pay for basic functions, is somewhere in August. This gives Congress until then to pass the package, which includes authorization for more spending in the form of a debt limit increase.
