GOP's $95B defense package survives critical hurdle amid fiscal hawk revolt

House GOP leaders narrowly avoided a major setback Thursday as they race to pass a third party-line megabill, but fiscal hawks are still threatening to derail the effort.

The first test came Thursday at a critical House Budget Committee markup, during which the panel approved a $95 billion budget reconciliation framework along party lines in a vote of 20-14.

But House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is likely to face trouble on the House floor next week since some conservatives sharply criticized the budget plan for including no instructions to offset spending.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the budget panel who has expressed concerns with the framework, did not vote.

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, have a discussion during a House Rules Committee meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 1, 2025. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

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The budget blueprint now heads to the House Rules Committee, where GOP leaders will attempt to win a key vote and put the plan up for a chamber-wide vote by the end of next week.

The framework would provide $73 billion for defense and intelligence, allocate $12 billion in assistance to farmers and establish a $10 billion funding pot that is expected to provide grants to states to implement elements of the SAVE America Act.

House fiscal hawks warned earlier this week that the bill was a non-starter because it included no spending offsets.

"I think that a no offset plan is dead on arrival because, frankly, three of us would kill it," Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, told reporters. "And so, I think that's likely at this point."

Passing a budget blueprint is the first step to unlock the complex budget reconciliation process, which requires near-unanimity among Republicans amid their slim margins.

Johnson can afford to lose just three GOP defections assuming all members are present and voting.

Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, arrives for a House Republican Conference caucus meeting at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington May 13, 2026. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images)

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Republicans are pursuing a third "big, beautiful bill" to cut Democrats out of the process, meaning Johnson will have to rely solely on GOP votes.

The plan also faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where some Republicans remain skeptical of another reconciliation effort. House Republicans’ blueprint notably contains no spending instructions for the upper chamber, an omission that could further delay the process.

If the budget blueprint advances out of the House and Senate, only then will lawmakers start writing the actual bill.

The plan could also face trouble in the upper chamber, where a faction of Senate Republicans remain skeptical of another reconciliation effort.

"Everybody is betting against us being able to get it done," Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. "I am more and more optimistic each day that passes."

Johnson has cast the effort as the best opportunity for Republicans to pass pieces of the stalled SAVE America Act before the November midterm elections.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to members of the media at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., May 21, 2026. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg)

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"It's our best shot at enacting our party's top priority legislation, the SAVE America Act," Johnson said Wednesday at a news conference with Vice President JD Vance. 

"It is important to the American people, and it's important to the future."