WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans advanced their massive tax cut and border security package out of a key House committee during a rare Sunday night vote as deficit hawks who had blocked the measure two days earlier allowed it to move forward, citing what they called progress in negotiations on the package’s spending cuts.
Speaker Mike Johnson met with Republican lawmakers shortly before the meeting and told reporters that some changes had been agreed to, but he did not offer specifics. He described them as “just some minor modifications. Not a huge thing.”
Democrats on the panel pressed for more details. But Rep. Jodey Arrington, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, said the bill remained under negotiation.
“Deliberations continue at this very moment,” Arrington said. “They will continue on into the week, and I suspect right up until the time we put this big, beautiful bill on the floor of the House.”
The four conservatives who have been voicing concerns about the bill’s impact on the deficit voted present so that the measure could advance by a vote of 17-16.
