DORAL, Fla. — Leaders within the House GOP’s largest caucus are drawing a red line in congressional Republicans’ budget talks.
The Republican Study Committee’s (RSC) steering group is calling for any budget reconciliation plan to ultimately lead to reductions in the U.S. deficit, which occurs when the federal government’s spending outpaces its revenues in a given fiscal year.
‘Reconciliation legislation must reduce the federal budget deficit. Our national security depends on our ability to bring about meaningful fiscal reform,’ the official position, first obtained by Fox News Digital, said.
RSC leaders met behind closed doors at House Republicans’ annual retreat to hash out their stance. GOP lawmakers were at Trump National Doral golf course in Florida for three days of discussions on reconciliation and other fiscal deadlines looming on the horizon.
They have been negotiating for weeks on how to use their razor-thin majorities in the House and Senate to pass massive conservative policy changes through the budget reconciliation process.
By reducing the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to a 51-seat simple majority, reconciliation allows a party in control of both congressional chambers to enact sweeping changes, provided they are relevant to budgetary and fiscal policy.
At 178 members, RSC is House Republicans’ largest inter-conference group. It often acts as the House GOP’s de facto ‘think tank’ on policy matters.
The group is being led this year by Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas. Its previous chairman is Rep. Kevin Hern, R-Okla., who was recently elected House Republican Policy Committee chair – an example of RSC’s close ties to GOP leadership.
Republican lawmakers have their work cut out for them this year as they work to unify for congressional leaders’ preferred timeline for the reconciliation process.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Wednesday that he intends to have a House-wide vote on an initial budget resolution in late February.
But once Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., departs for the Trump administration as expected, House Republicans will not be able to afford any defections to pass legislation along party lines. In the Senate, the GOP can lose two lawmakers to still meet the 51-vote threshold.
And President Donald Trump outlined several specific policies he wants Republicans to include in their reconciliation legislation – including no taxes on tips or overtime pay and more funding for the U.S.-Mexico border – which could add to the federal deficit if not paired with significant spending cuts.
Republicans have floated various ways to achieve those cuts, including adding work requirements to federal benefits and rolling back progressive regulations enacted during the Biden administration.
Johnson said he wanted Republicans’ final product to be deficit-neutral or better.
‘Anything we do, is going to be deficit-neutral at least, and hopefully deficit-reducing, because we think we’ve got to change that trajectory,’ he said on Wednesday. ‘So that is part of the healthy discussion we’ve been having. And everyone has lots of opinions about that, of course. And, the opinions are welcomed.’
The U.S. is running a cumulative deficit of $710 billion in fiscal year 2025 so far, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. It’s $200 billion more than the same period in FY 2024.
Meanwhile federal revenues were $1.1 trillion through December, a decrease of 2% from the same period prior, the group said.