A group of House Republicans is scheduled to visit the White House this afternoon to meet President Donald Trump about the pending GOP budget framework, according to two Republicans granted anonymity to discuss the plans.
The 1 p.m. meeting is expected to include key holdouts on the Senate-approved budget, which Speaker Mike Johnson wants to finalize in the House this week.
In a morning conference meeting Tuesday, Johnson and other leaders tried to rally their members behind the plan, telling them if they advanced it this week, the House and Senate would seek to hammer out more contours of the bill during the coming two-week recess, according to three people with direct knowledge of the meeting.
As Johnson spoke, though, a raft of GOP members were already waiting by microphones to air their grievances about the strategy, the people said.
One member who was invited, House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.), said in an interview he did not plan to go, saying that Trump should “spend time with people whose minds he might change.”
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in an interview Tuesday that leaders still intend to call a House Rules Committee meeting later this afternoon to set up floor consideration of the budget, setting up a final vote as soon as Wednesday. But leaders are watching three hard-liners on the panel who could balk at sending the measure to the floor.
One of them, Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia, replied “I hope not” Tuesday morning after he was asked if he thought the panel would in fact vote today.
