Texas hardliners withdraw objections to GOP spending bill, allowing House passage

Texas hardliners withdraw objections to GOP spending bill, allowing House passage

Spectrum News 1

Reena Diamante | May 22, 2025

WASHINGTON — On Capitol Hill, hardline Republicans from Texas withdrew their objections to a massive package of tax and spending cuts sought by President Donald Trump, narrowly allowing the measure to pass the U.S. House. Although conservatives brokered some changes to the final package, the bill does not include some of their biggest demands.

Over the past several weeks, U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, has said how the Republican tax and spending plan fell short. He emerged as the de facto leader of GOP renegades, looking for even steeper reductions. 

“All I see are promises. I do not believe in promises in Washington,” Roy told reporters last month ahead of a House vote on the spending framework.   

“We are writing checks we cannot cash, and our children are gonna pay the price,” he said last Friday. Roy was one of four Republicans on the House Budget Committee who temporarily tanked the bill. In a rare Sunday session, they changed their votes to “present,” which allowed the bill to advance. 

On Wednesday, Roy said, “There’s a long way to go.” 

Then on Thursday, Roy fell in line. He and all the Texas Republicans in the House ultimately voted for the bill, allowing it to squeak through the House and advance to the Senate.

“Our national debt, soaring by trillions from Republicans who talk fiscal responsibility but serve their cult leader, the deficit hawks have become chicken hawks tonight in submission to Trump, the self-described king of debt,” said U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, on the House floor. 

Shortly after the vote, Roy told CNBC that Republican hardliners won some concessions to further limit Medicaid spending, either through provisions added to the bill or promises made by the White House. They also got House leaders to include language phasing out Biden-era clean energy tax credits even sooner.

“Those were all really big, important wins for us. I didn’t get everything I wanted. I think there’s some other stuff that I hope the Senate might address, both on deficits and on the Medicaid issue,” Roy told CNBC. “I think we could still improve, but we got a lot of work to do still in the Senate, then bounce back to the House.”   

Spectrum News asked other Texas Republicans in the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus what got their support.

“This bill was so important to the nation, the tax cuts had to get through,” said U.S. Rep. Keith Self, R-McKinney. “Then we had to balance it, and everybody knows the issues. So I would have preferred it go further too, to be honest with you, but we did what we could, and we fought the good fight.”

“Continuing to secure the border, opening up our energy, a lot of good things were in it,” U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Victoria, told Spectrum News. “There were some important things we needed to do to make sure that we didn’t incentivize the expansions of Medicaid and that we put some good controls on fraud and abuse. There’s still more work to be done there, but we made some headway on that.” 

The all-night debate and early morning vote came hours after Trump met with the Republicans holdouts at the White House, urging them to support the bill. Trump warned them failure to pass the package would be the “ultimate betrayal.” 

Meanwhile, all the House Democrats voted against the Republican-written bill. 

“The Republicans were intent on gutting health care, gutting food assistance, gutting so many important things just so that their wealthy friends could have a tax break. I’m just disgusted,” U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Dallas, told Spectrum News.  

Democrats seized on a new analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office which concluded that the legislation would increase the federal budget deficit by more than $3 trillion over 10 years and force more than 8 million Americans to lose their health insurance. 

“They just don’t have any moral compass. They carry on about the deficit, but they’re adding trillions of dollars to the deficit. They just can’t stand up to the man in the White House. It’s really sad,” Johnson continued. 

“Thousands of El Pasoans will have less money in their pockets and less access to health care and nutrition programs,” U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said in a statement. “Instead of helping hardworking Americans, this legislation — the centerpiece of the Trump domestic agenda — will make our country poorer, sicker and hungrier.”   

Republicans said they do not trust the CBO’s numbers.

“The CBO doesn’t predict what the economy is going to do. You’re watching countries come back because of the tariff. You’re watching manufacturing be brought back here under President Trump,” said U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, R-Friendswood. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson cautioned senators not to make too many changes, because the revision would need House approval again. For now, President Trump’s sweeping legislative agenda is a step closer to reaching his desk.