House GOP leaders are promising a fourth reconciliation bill to address missed priorities as they try to muscle third-party-line spending legislation across the finish line before departing for the August recess. Leadership is hoping that by dangling a fourth spending package, hard-line Republican holdouts will vote to advance the third reconciliation bill.
But a handful of House Republicans aren’t sold on the idea, just one day before the chamber is set to vote on a budget framework that left out a slew of priorities and did not include spending offsets.
Members have a list of concerns that were not addressed in the third bill, such as cuts to Planned Parenthood funding, rooting out waste, fraud, and abuse, as well as affordability issues that have become a focal point for the 2026 election.
“Look, it’s an uphill battle to push all this stuff,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), who recently announced a campaign to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, told reporters Tuesday morning. “Reconciliation four, we ought to take advantage of cuts at every level. We’re not getting 60 votes in the Senate. That’s a given. We get 51 votes at best, so it’s a good thing to do.”
Some lawmakers, however, aren’t convinced a fourth reconciliation bill will even be feasible just months before the midterm elections.
“I’m not sure how realistic the closer we get to the election, I think it makes it harder to do it, so I’m not sure how feasible it is,” Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-IN) told the Washington Examiner. “I’ll be honest with you, just to be able to get anything done at this point.”
One GOP staffer told the Washington Examiner that members are much more upset about the framework than they are saying publicly, and while the lack of spending offsets is a large factor, members are also disappointed their policy priorities are not addressed in the budget bill.
“You’re not addressing the funding for Planned Parenthood issue, so for the pro-life community, that’s important to us,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) told reporters. “You’re not paying for it, which there’s plenty of waste, fraud, and abuse that they could have easily found to pay for this, and then you’re not addressing some of the key issues that Americans really want us to address, which is the affordability issues, and we’re missing a huge opportunity.”
Frustrations are mounting for some members, who complain the left-out priorities have become routine.
“I was told these promises in [reconciliation] one, they didn’t make it,” Burlison told reporters. “They didn’t make the cut. [Reconciliation] two ended up being a joke, and then here we are, [reconciliation] three, and with another skinny version, without doing the things that Americans want us to.”
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) told reporters, when the framework was released, that the time constraint played a major factor in the slimmed-down third reconciliation bill.
“We had the time, the luxury of time, in the Big Beautiful Bill to work through that and get at least a partial win for the pro-life movement,” Arrington said. “I was very happy about that.
“What is the need right now for the highest order of the federal government’s mission and its security, securing elections, securing the food supply, and supporting our troops for the coming defense,” the chairman said. “That’s it.”
The resolution includes spending instructions for four committees: the House Administration Committee at $10 billion, the House Armed Services Committee at $60 billion, the House Agriculture Committee at $12 billion, and the House Intelligence Committee at $13 billion. There are no spending offsets in the resolution.
REPUBLICANS RACE TO AVOID COSTLY GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN AHEAD OF MIDTERM ELECTIONS
As talks of a fourth reconciliation bill circulate, GOP hard-liners are demanding inclusion of voter ID and proof of citizenship in the third reconciliation bill.
In its current form, the SAVE America Act, a voter identification bill, would not pass the Senate’s Byrd Rule, which governs policies allowed in reconciliation bills, meaning Republicans would need to overrule the parliamentarian’s ruling, something Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has previously refused to do.
Hailey Bullis contributed to this article.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
