House adopts budget resolution, paving way for work to begin on Trump’s tax and spending cuts
The vote was close, 216-214, with only two Republicans in the end voting no and two not voting.
Key events
Trump administration urges states to limit what can be bought with food stamps, targeting soda and other processed foods
The Trump administration is calling on states to request waivers that would bar food stamp recipients from buying soda and other processed foods with their benefits, according to a Thursday op-ed by US health and agriculture secretaries, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Brooke Rollins.
The secretaries, in the USA Today op-ed, promised more shared initiatives to further the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda promoted by Kennedy and backed by Donald Trump.
Kennedy and Rollins said the Departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture were pursuing reforms to the nation’s largest food aid program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and called on all governors to submit waivers to restrict what SNAP recipients can buy.
“We will encourage taxpayer dollars to go toward wholesome foods, such as whole milk, fruits, vegetables and meats,” the secretaries wrote.
More than 41 million people on low incomes receive SNAP benefits, which are administered by the USDA.
The call for waivers is the latest chapter in a years-long debate over whether SNAP recipients should be able to use their benefits to buy soda or other processed foods. Critics of restrictions, including some Democrats, see them as stigmatizing.
Nebraska governor Jim Pillen on 7 April sent a letter to Rollins indicating the state would request a waiver to prohibit SNAP recipients from buying soda and energy drinks with their benefits, according to a state press release.
And West Virginia governor Patrick Morrisey in late March signed a similar letter of intent at an event with Kennedy, according to a state press release.
Reuters reports that there is little evidence that SNAP recipients consume significantly more soda than non-SNAP households. A 2016 USDA study found that soda was the top commodity category purchased by SNAP households and the second most common commodity for non-SNAP households, with the difference accounting for less than 1 cent per dollar.
Kathleen Sgamma, Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Land Management abruptly withdrew her name from consideration this morning.
The decision was announced by Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, during what was meant to be her confirmation hearing on Thursday. Lee did not detail why she had withdrawn her nomination but said that he had been informed of the news by the White House.
According to Politico, her official withdrawal statement submitted to the committee stated that: “It was an honor to be nominated by President Trump as Director of the Bureau of Land Management, but unfortunately at this time I need to withdraw my nomination.”
“I will continue to support President Trump and fight for his agenda to Unleash American Energy in the private sector” she added.
Her withdrawal comes juts days after private comments from 2021 surfaced, including one where Sgamma said that she was “disgusted by the violence witnessed” on 6 January 2021, and by Trump’s “role in spreading misinformation that incited it.”
A judge in Philadelphia ruled today that the defamation lawsuit brought against president Donald trump by members of the Central Park five can go forward.
According to Reuters, Philadelphia-based District Judge Wendy Beetlestone ruled on Thursday that the five men had presented enough evidence for now to pursue their lawsuit accusing Trump of defaming them in comments he made during the 2024 presidential campaign.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in October after Trump falsely said during the presidential debate in September that the men had killed someone and pleaded guilty.
Attorneys for the five men, who all pleaded not guilty to the crime and were cleared in 2002 based on new DNA evidence and another person’s confession, allege in the lawsuit that the former president acted with “reckless disregard” for the truth and with intent to cause “severe emotional distress”.
Trump’s lawyers had sought to dismiss the case and Trump has denied any wrongdoing.
Read more about the lawsuit here:
The man accused of trying to assassinate president Donald Trump on his Florida golf course last yar is set to be charged today with attempted first-degree murder and terrorism.
Florida attorney general James Uthmeier said on Thursday that his office was officially charging Ryan Routh “for attempting to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald J. Trump” on 15 September 2024 at the Trump International Gold Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“Shortly after the assassination attempt, Governor DeSantis signed an executive order directing the office of attorney general to work with our law enforcement partners and investigate Mr. Routh” Uthmeier said, adding that he can now announce that he is charging Rough with attempted first-degree murder as well as a charge for terrorism.
House passes Republican legislation that would require proof of citizenship when registering to vote for federal elections.
House Republicans have passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (Save Act), which they say is essential for ensuring that only US citizens cast ballots in federal elections. But Democrats have criticized the legislation, warning that the it risks disenfranchising millions of Americans who may not have ready access to the proper documents.
The bill’s fate in the Senate is uncertain.
Trump congratulates House of Representatives for passing the GOP’s budget blueprint.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president wrote:
Congratulations to the House on the passage of a Bill that sets the stage for one of the Greatest and Most Important Signings in the History of our Country Among many other things, it will be the Largest Tax and Regulation Cuts ever even contemplated. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
The House passing the budget plan lays the groundwork for extending Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, despite opposition from all Democrats as well as two Republicans, who worried that it does not cut spending sufficiently.
Reuters reports that the 216-214 House vote is a preliminary – but required – step that would enable Republicans to bypass Democratic opposition and pass tax cut legislation – Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” – along party lines later this year.
Republicans will fashion those tax cuts over the coming months. Indeed, the legislation passed on Thursday amounts to a broad budget blueprint, which includes few details.
The bill would extend the 2017 tax cuts that were Trump’s primary first-term legislative achievement. He has also proposed additional tax breaks for overtime wages, tipped income and Social Security benefits. Nonpartisan analysts say that could drive the bill’s cost north of $11tn.
Congressional Republicans also intend to use the budget blueprint to raise the federal government’s debt ceiling, which they must do by sometime this summer or risk default on the nation’s $36.6tn in debt.
The budget resolution now enters into the budget reconciliation process to enact Donald Trump’s policy agenda focused on tax cuts, domestic energy production and border security.
House adopts budget resolution, paving way for work to begin on Trump’s tax and spending cuts
The vote was close, 216-214, with only two Republicans in the end voting no and two not voting.
US will no longer require environmental analyses on western states’ oil and gas leases
The Trump administration said on Thursday that it will no longer require environmental impact statements for oil and gas leases across the US west, in a step toward lifting green hurdles to drilling that environmental groups will likely challenge in court.
The Interior Department said in a release that it will no longer require its Bureau of Land Management to prepare environmental impact statements for about 3,244 oil and gas leases across Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming.
Environmental impact statements are detailed analyses on the impacts of federal actions that will have a significant effect on the environment. They are required for major projects by the bedrock 1970 US environmental law the National Environmental Policy Act.
Donald Trump has long sought to fight NEPA’s requirements. On 20 January, his first day back in office, he signed an executive order aiming to speed up energy permitting by requiring the head of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality to propose doing away with its NEPA requirements, including consideration of greenhouse gas emissions of major projects.
Interior said that the BLM is evaluating options for compliance with NEPA for the oil and gas leasing decisions.
Donald Trump has urged House Republicans to vote yes to pass the budget resolution that would advance his domestic agenda. He posted on his Truth Social platform:
Great News! “The Big, Beautiful Bill” is coming along really well. Republicans are working together nicely. Biggest Tax Cuts in USA History!!! Getting close. DJT
As Reuters reports, the budget package would cut taxes by about $5tn and add approximately $5.7tn to the federal government’s debt over the next decade.
But the stickler has been that Republicans have yet to settle on the spending reductions that would accompany those tax cuts. If not from Medicaid (as moderate Republicans fear it will be), it’s unclear where the savings will come from.
The legislation, which passed the Senate on Saturday, calls for a minimum of $4bn in spending cuts, which is far less than a previous version approved by the House that mandates $1.5tn in cuts.
Senate Republicans say the $4bn figure is simply a minimum that does not prevent Congress from passing much larger tax cuts in the months to come. But some hardline conservatives in the House say they are reluctant to vote for legislation that does not include a bigger target.
The House budget vote is happening now. I’ll bring you the results as soon as we have them.
‘We have the votes’: Mike Johnson presses ahead with vote on Trump budget blueprint despite Republican opposition
Mike Johnson said House Republicans would try again today to push through the budget plan needed to kick off work to enact Donald Trump’s domestic agenda, despite pulling a vote last night after conservatives threatened to sink it over concerns that it does not cut spending enough.
Appearing alongside Senate majority leader John Thune at a news conference this morning in a bid to convince conservative holdouts that the two chambers were on the same page regarding spending cuts, Johnson once again projected confidence that he now has the numbers. This is despite, according to Axios, dozens of fiscal conservatives in the House last night withholding support unless they get guarantees for deeper spending cuts in the budget resolution.
Johnson said leaders were “committed to finding at least $1.5tn in savings for the American people” – which, as The Hill notes, is a key ask of the fiscal hawks in his party. The budget blueprint adopted by the Senate that the House is voting on called for a minimum of $4bn in spending cuts.
Johnson told reporters:
I believe we have the votes to finally adopt the budget resolution so we can move forward among President Trump’s very important agenda for the American people.
This process has required a lot of close consultation between the White House and the Senate, and all of that has been necessary because we want to make sure that we are delivering on our shared goals in the budget reconciliation process.
Stopping short of as strong an assurance, Thune said the Senate is “aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings”.
We have got to do something to get the country on a more sustainable fiscal path, and that entails us taking a hard scrub of our government figuring out where we can find those savings.
The Speaker talked about $1.5tn, we have a lot of United States senators who believe that is a minimum, and we’re certainly gonna do everything we can to be as aggressive as possible.
If Republicans are finally successful today, the vote will be just the first step in a lengthy process to fulfil Trump’s domestic agenda – including tax cuts, military spending, energy policy and border security investments – this year.
As I said earlier, amending the resolution to include steeper spending cuts would leave moderate House Republicans likely balking at that prospect after raising concerns about potential cuts to Medicaid. The Senate would then also have to reapprove the budget resolution, which would require another all-night vote-a-rama (they’ve already had two in less than six weeks). The other option is to go straight to conference with the other chamber and working out differences there.
So, whether Johnson and Thune’s public efforts will be enough to finally sway the fiscal hawks to back the budget resolution remains to be seen. Stay tuned.
