House Freedom Caucus Chair Urges Johnson to Rethink Senate's Trump Budget Bill

EXCLUSIVE: House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., has taken a firm stance against the Senate's amended version of sweeping legislation aimed at advancing President Donald Trump's agenda. Harris, speaking in an interview with Fox News Digital on Monday morning, declared, "At this point, I would vote against it." His opposition signals significant dissent within the Republican ranks over the bill's trajectory.

The Senate's revised version of the legislation, passed in the early hours of Saturday morning, mandates $4 billion in spending cuts—far less than the $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion outlined by the House. For fiscal hawks like Harris, this discrepancy is a major sticking point. He emphasized the need for meaningful deficit reduction, adding, "I'm not willing to do that until I see what the actual deficit reduction the Senate has in mind is."

Congressional Republicans are working on what Trump has dubbed "one big, beautiful bill," a massive legislative package designed to tackle border security, defense, energy policies, and taxes. The reconciliation process, which allows fiscal measures to pass in the Senate with a simple majority instead of the usual 60 votes, is being leveraged for this effort.

Harris, who leads the House GOP's most conservative group, has joined other Republicans in urging the Senate to craft its own reconciliation bill. Despite ruling out immediate support for the Senate's offering, Harris left room for compromise: "If they deliver on their promise of deficit reduction, then I'm fine with their budget resolution."

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has defended the Senate's framework, claiming it does not prevent the House from achieving its goals. In a letter to GOP colleagues, Johnson stated, "The amended resolution in NO WAY prevents us from achieving our goals in the final reconciliation bill." Johnson's office reiterated this stance on Monday.

While passing a reconciliation framework sets the stage for crafting detailed policy, conservative lawmakers like Harris argue that the House can move forward without adopting the Senate's version. "They just think that we have to keep the train moving forward," Harris said. "But again, if we just begin to craft the actual reconciliation packages, that keeps the train moving forward as well."

With the debt limit at the center of the debate—$4 trillion under the House's resolution and $5 trillion in the Senate's—this legislative battle is shaping up to be a significant test for the GOP's unity. The House's February framework included funding for defense, border security, and extending Trump's tax cuts, but balancing spending cuts with soaring deficits remains a contentious issue.

As fiscal conservatives and party leaders clash over priorities, the question remains: how far can the GOP push for bold deficit reduction while accommodating Trump's ambitious agenda?