WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said Tuesday afternoon he is undecided on whether he will support the Senate’s amended budget resolution to cut taxes, slash spending and enact President Donald Trump’s agenda.
Moore, along with several hard-line conservative House Republicans, is hesitant to back the Senate’s amendment to the House budget resolution when it comes up for a vote in the House this week. Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose three votes.
Moore said it was “concerning” that the Senate resolution calls for at least $4 billion in cuts, while the House’s version calls for at least $1.5 trillion in cuts.
“It’s not even anywhere close,” Moore told Alabama Daily News. “They may have just put that number in, to get the process rolling, and I understand that. So I think we just need to make sure that we as Republicans are all on the same sheet of music, that the end goal is, in fact, to cut the deficit spending.”
The Senate passed the budget blueprint early Saturday morning with both of Alabama’s senators supporting the legislation. Now, the House will have to adopt the same blueprint to unlock the reconciliation process. The House could vote on the resolution as early as today if Johnson is able to get enough Republicans to support the measure. The Rules Committee will have to take up the resolution before it gets a vote on the House floor.
Moore said it’s a matter of building trust with the Senate, ensuring that they will be open to more spending cuts once lawmakers start hammering out the details of the tax and spending legislation.
“Some of our conservative friends in the Senate passed it and voted for it,” Moore told ADN. “That gives me some good feelings.”
Johnson is reminding lawmakers that the details of the “big, beautiful bill” will be worked out once the House adopts the resolution, trying to assure hesitant Republicans that there will be significant spending cuts.
“Any final reconciliation bill has to include historic spending reductions that we included in our resolution while also safeguarding essential programs,” Johnson said during his Tuesday press conference.
Trump is also strongly urging Republicans to support the plan to extend his tax cuts and bolster defense and border spending.
“THE HOUSE MUST PASS THIS BUDGET RESOLUTION, AND QUICKLY,” Trump posted on Truth Social Monday night.
Gov. Kay Ivey is also joining in on the push to get the resolution passed. Ivey joined other Republican governors in a letter to Trump thanking him for his support of the budget plan.
“…Congress must deliver to your desk a reconciliation bill that reinforces your executive actions and codifies in permanent law policies to secure the border, unleash American energy, restore military supremacy, fight wasteful spending, prevent a debilitating tax hike on working class Americans and prevent a debt default,” the letter read.