What's in the House Republican budget bill? | The Excerpt
On Thursday’s episode of The Excerpt podcast: Paste BN Congressional Correspondent Riley Beggin takes a closer look at this week's passed House Republican budget bill, and what might be next from Senate Republicans. The Supreme Court pauses a judge's order requiring the Trump administration to pay foreign aid contractors. A child has died in the Texas measles outbreak, marking the first U.S. measles death since 2015. President Trump will impose 25% tariffs on the European Union. Paste BN White House Correspondent Joey Garrison discusses what's next as the Trump administration shifts to a new phase of large-scale cuts to the federal workforce.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and today is Thursday, February 27th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, what's in this week's past house Republican budget bill. Plus the Supreme Court pauses a judge's order requiring that the Trump administration pay foreign aid contractors. And what's next for large scale cuts to the federal workforce.
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House Republicans this week narrowly passed their plan to advance President Donald Trump's legislative agenda. For a closer look on what the proposal includes and what's next from Senate Republicans, I caught up with Paste BN Congressional Correspondent, Riley Beggin. Hello, Riley.
Riley Beggin:
Hello.
Taylor Wilson:
So in terms of what's actually in this house budget plan, Riley, I mean, what really stands out to you?
Riley Beggin:
The way that I think readers should think about this is, is this a framework, sort of a shell that is going to tell lawmakers how they're going to write a bill that enacts President Donald Trump's agenda. What it does is it sets out funding levels that certain committees should be able to spend or cut from the federal budget. The sort of marquee thing in this package is $4.5 trillion worth of money that the ways and means committee can use to spend to enact Trump's tax plan. So that's an extension likely of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. No tax on tips, no tax on overtime, those things that Trump talked about on the campaign trail. And those are expensive priorities, which is why you see that big ticket number. In addition to that, it has around $300 billion towards what would likely become border security related policy. Again, we don't have a lot of details on exactly what that policy is yet.
It also lays out several trillion dollars worth of cuts to balance that out. They're supposed to aim for around two trillion at least. If they go over that, they can spend more on the tax package. If they go under that, they have to spend less as a part of this negotiation. The big thing to know about the cuts is there's $880 billion that is designated for the Energy and Commerce Committee to cut. The reason that you might be hearing about that is the Energy and Commerce Committee manages Medicaid. Medicaid is the program that supports low-income Americans to have health insurance and $880 billion is a lot of money. It is likely, according to tax experts, that they would have to in some way touch the Medicaid program in order to meet that goal.
How that happens really remains to be seen. Another thing to know about the cuts, $330 billion from Education and Workforce Committee, that's school lunch programs, other school programs, workforce training programs, things like that. Again, we don't know how they get there. $230 billion for the Agriculture Committee. They oversee SNAP the food stamps program. Again, we have lawmakers saying they want to protect SNAP, but we don't know exactly how this is going to play out here. The final thing I will say that's in this package, and I apologize, I know it's complicated, there's so much here, is that it would raise the debt limit by $4 trillion over the next few years. So that essentially gives the federal government the ability to pay back the debt for things they have already purchased.
Taylor Wilson:
In terms of the Trump factor here, I mean, how aligned is President Donald Trump with this budget bill out of the house? Have we heard from him and just where does it stand in terms of his priorities?
Riley Beggin:
So there have been two sort of competing versions here between the House and the Senate. And another thing I should note is that this passed the house. If this is going to become the basis of the plan, the Senate also has to pass it and we have some reporting about the way that senators are reacting to this. They would like to make some changes here. So this is not set in stone even yet, but this is the version that Trump has endorsed. He likes the idea of rolling everything into one. This has border energy defense and then a tax policy altogether. He loves that.
He's calling it one big beautiful bill and the House thinks that that's the best plan because it can help them sort of squeak through these incredibly narrow margins. Easier to do it once than twice, even though it's going to be hard no matter what. The thing to keep in mind as we go forward though, is that even with that $4.5 trillion, which is a lot of money for tax cuts, it's not going to be enough to make these tax cuts permanent. And that's something that Trump really wants and it's something that's coming up a lot on the Senate side as they sort of try to argue for their version, or at least for changes to this house version
Taylor Wilson:
In terms of their version, this is another great piece you're involved with here. What exactly are we hearing in terms of pushback from Senate Republicans?
Riley Beggin:
The biggest pushback is really that tax piece that the House version would extend it, but they wouldn't make it permanent, and that's something that Trump wants, but we're also hearing a lot of concern about potential touching on Medicaid, the cuts there. Again, we don't know exactly how this is going to play out, but we are several senators who acknowledge that, that 880 billion is likely going to impact Medicaid in some way. Now, I will say Republicans both in the House and the Senate have argued that it is possible to make these cuts to Medicaid without actually touching the benefits that people are getting here. There're arguing that there is waste, fraud, and abuse that could be cut. Again, remains to be seen whether that's the case. Mike Johnson claimed that there's $50 billion worth of fraud in Medicaid happening every year. So there is concern, I think, among some Republicans that it could go further than just waste fraud and abuse.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, Riley Beggin covers Congress for Paste BN. Thank you, Riley.
Riley Beggin:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has granted the Trump administration's emergency requests to pause a judge's order requiring the government to pay foreign assistance dollars to contractors and grant recipients. Just hours before the lower court's midnight deadline, Robert's order was the first time the Supreme Court has intervened as judges have temporarily blocked the White House from taking huge steps to reshape the government and consolidate power. Roberts agreed to put the order on hold and told the grant recipients waiting for their funding to tell the court by tomorrow why the order should go forward. His decision came after the DC Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration's request.
The panel of three judges, all of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents said the federal judge's order is not subject to review by a higher court at this stage of the litigation. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.
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Texas authorities yesterday announced the first measles' death in the state's outbreak of the highly contagious disease. The death of a school aged child is the first measles' death in the country since 2015 according to the CDC. Lubbock City and Texas health officials confirmed the hospitalized patient was unvaccinated. In a cabinet meeting yesterday at the White House, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said two deaths have been reported in the outbreak, but later Wednesday, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon said The CDC, which is part of HHS, was aware of one death. You can stay with all the latest on usatoday.com.
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President Trump will hit the European Union with 25% tariffs saying the EU was formed to, quote, "screw the United States", unquote. Trump said the tariffs would apply to all things, but mentioned car imports specifically. The EU's predecessor organizations were launched in the wake of World War Two to ensure peaceful cooperation on the continent. Their gradual economic integration has included the development of a widely shared currency and free movement across national borders. Trump's 25% tariffs on the EU could impact a number of products. Neil Saunders, a retail analyst at the research and analytics firm, GlobalData, highlighted their likely effect on high-end goods and luxury fashion brands like Louis Vuitton and Chanel.
Other more affordable brands like the clothing company, Zara based in Spain, could also be affected. Saunders also explained that if tariffs apply to items used in manufacturing like plastics or rubber, they're likely to disrupt supply chains. He gave examples of how imported organic chemicals are used to make household cleaning products and leather is used to make items ranging from sofas to parts of cars. Trump has delayed a 25% tariff he was set to impose on imports from Canada and Mexico. He said yesterday that the tariffs would go into effect on April 2nd. He's also imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese imports. All three countries have vowed retaliatory tariffs.
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The Trump administration is shifting to the next phase of large-scale cuts to the federal workforce. I spoke with Paste BN White House Correspondent, Joey Garrison for more. Hello, Joey.
Joey Garrison:
Hey, thanks for having me on.
Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for hopping on, Joey. So just let's start with this. I mean, what do we know about the Trump administration now shifting to this next phase of mass layoffs?
Joey Garrison:
On Wednesday, the Trump administration, the office of personnel management and office of management budget, co-wrote a memo that was sent to all federal departments and agencies telling them to initiate and prepare for large-scale reductions in force in their respective agencies and departments. This is across the board and what's key about these next round of layoffs, which again should be taking place in the coming weeks here, is this isn't just probationary workers, which have been the focus of the layoffs to date. This is going to go to all civil service employees who are targeted. So it remains to be seen the scope of the cuts we're talking about from one department to another, but there's signals out there that these are going to be very deep cuts.
You've had Elon Musk, the head of the department of government efficiency talking about deleting entire agencies, departments. He's already done that in some cases with USAID. We can step back and look at a series of three different phases in which the Trump administration has targeted federal workers. The first came in that fork in the road buyout offer, which all workers were given a chance to resign in exchange for eight months of pay. More than 75,000 people took part of that. Then you had the probationary workers who were targeted. We don't have an official across the board count, but we're looking at tens of thousands of workers who were laid off in that capacity. And this third round, these are the large-scale reductions in force and again, departments have till March 13th to initiate their plans.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, as you say, Joey, we're still waiting to see kind of some specifics here, but we did hear this week that the Environmental Protection Agency administrator said they're also planning massive cuts. What can you tell us about this?
Joey Garrison:
That actually came from President Trump himself. He had his first cabinet meeting on Wednesday, which actually featured Elon Musk addressing Trump's cabinet secretaries. And Trump referenced a conversation he had with EPA Administrator, Lee Zeldin, of which Zeldin said he's looking at cuts of 65% of the workforce of the EPA. That of course would be very deep cuts and targets an agency that Republicans have long criticized for being over regulatory on climate and environmental regulation. So that's one the Trump administration will happily go after. And not to say that we're looking at 65% cuts across every department, but we're talking about some pretty big numbers once we start getting more details and some of these layoffs come to fruition.
Taylor Wilson:
Joey, does it appear the Trump administration and DOGE have been hindered or slowed down at all by the courts? I know they've already intervened on a number of moves from the Department of Government Efficiency.
Joey Garrison:
Yeah, I mean they've had some setbacks here and there, but they've also had some court decisions that have allowed them to go forward. And so one of the areas they've really not had much of a setback in court has been their efforts to fire a lot of these probationary workers and then now moving into this next phase, the reductions in force, so that's not stopped them to date. And ultimately the Trump administration, they have executive authority to decide how federal dollars are being spent and which agencies get funding and how the department is run. That's a question that's going to probably ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, Joey Garrison covers the White House for Paste BN. Thanks, Joey.
Joey Garrison:
Hey, thanks man.
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Taylor Wilson:
For this week's edition of our editor's notes segment. I'll be chatting with Paste BN Life and Entertainment Managing Editor, Laura Trujillo about her team's coverage of the Academy Awards, which are this Sunday. If you're a movie fan, curious about how this year's awards race has been covered and how Paste BN will be approaching the big show on Sunday. Shoot us a question at podcastsatusatoday.com and I may relay it to Laura during our conversation.
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Are we ready for another pandemic? As the bird flu virus continues to spread nationwide, experts are concerned about undetected transfer and potential mutations, and now some health departments in conservative states are pulling back on vaccination promotion.
Adrianna Rodriguez:
This could definitely have detrimental effects not only to public health officials and their strategy in trying to mitigate this potential pandemic, but also with Americans lives.
Taylor Wilson:
Paste BN Health Reporter, Adrianna Rodriguez joins my colleague Dana Taylor to discuss if America can handle another deadly disease outbreak. Listen today beginning at four PM Eastern Time right here on this feed.
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And thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the pod wherever you get your audio, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.