President Donald Trump, left, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, right, are working to pass the president's agenda through Congress. (Getty Images)
"I'm happy to tell you that this morning, I believe we have the votes to finally adopt the budget resolution so we can move forward on President Trump's very important agenda for the American people," Johnson said. "Our first big, beautiful reconciliation package here, involves a number of commitments. And one of those is that we are committed to finding at least $1.5 trillion in savings for the American people, while also preserving our essential programs."
Thune added, "We are aligned with the House in terms of what their budget resolution outlined in terms of savings. The speaker has talked about $1.5 trillion. We have a lot of United States senators who believe in that as a minimum."
It comes after the House's initial plan to vote on the legislation on Wednesday was quickly scuttled at the last minute in the face of more than a dozen Republican holdouts.
Several of those holdouts said Thune's public commitment helped sway them in comments to reporters after the vote.
"We have now three strong statements from the speaker, the president and the Senate Majority Leader. We did not have those 48 hours ago. We do now," said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas.
Congressional Republicans are working on a massive conservative policy overhaul via the budget reconciliation process. By lowering the Senate's threshold for passage from 60 votes to 51, it allows the party in power to pass significant fiscal and budgetary policy changes.
In this case, Republicans are looking for some added funds for border security, defense, and to raise the debt ceiling – while paring back spending on the former Biden administration's green energy policies and in other sections of the federal government, likely including entitlement programs.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, left, shakes hands with President Donald Trump onstage at a House Republicans Conference meeting at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill on Nov. 13, 2024. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
That House Republican said, "All the chatter we were hearing was [holdouts were] down to single digits. But 17 … 20 people were in that room. So clearly there was a much bigger problem than they were letting on all day."
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Traditionally, the House and Senate must pass identical reconciliation frameworks to begin the work of crafting policy to fit into that framework.
Republicans are also working up against the clock – the debt ceiling is expected to be reached sometime this summer, after which the U.S. government risks a national default if it does not raise that limit to pay its debts.
Trump's 2017 tax cuts are also projected to expire at the end of this year if they are not extended.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trumps-big-beautiful-tax-agenda-scores-major-victory-house-despite-gop-rebellion-threats