House Republicans Feel Left in the Dark Over Reconciliation

As Speaker Mike Johnson and the White House push forward with a third reconciliation bill, many rank-and-file Republicans are growing frustrated about being excluded as top leaders leaned mostly on conservatives in its discussions.

When it was reported on Monday that White House officials were hosting members of the House Budget Committee at Camp David to discuss what to include in a bill of top Trump administration priorities, some on the committee were caught off guard.

The Budget Committee is in charge of forming reconciliation and advancing the blueprint, but the White House didn’t invite everyone on the panel, despite needing near unanimous support in the conference to approve it.

That includes two members of House Republican leadership who also sit on the Budget Committee, Conference Secretary Erin Houchin of Indiana and Conference Vice-Chair Blake Moore of Utah weren’t invited to the meeting.

“Guess I’m not important enough,” Moore joked when asked if he was at the Camp David meeting.

Tensions boiled over in Tuesday’s closed-door conference meeting when Houchin announced she was leaning against backing the budget resolution because of her exclusion from the meeting, a source in the room told NOTUS.

“I don’t care if the meeting was held at IHOP, the entire Budget Committee should have been included,” she told the room.

Oklahoma Rep. Stephanie Bice also pointedly asked the speaker if any women were invited to the Camp David meeting, a source in the room said.

“I remain committed to passing a strong reconciliation bill that delivers on the conservative priorities Americans sent us here to accomplish alongside President Trump: securing our border, strengthening our national defense, protecting our elections, combating fraud, and lowering costs,” Houchin said in a post on X. “But we have to get this right. I have serious concerns about the current framework as it’s been proposed.”

On Monday, when some members who were left out of the meeting confronted Johnson about it, he said the session with administration officials was only a couple hours long, a source told NOTUS, though members later found out that some of the group actually spent the night at Camp David, leading to more anger.

“Additional engagements are planned to include more members,” a White House official told NOTUS. “There were limited spots for this engagement.”

Following the meeting at Camp David, Johnson held a call with top leaders. On the call, he did not delve into specifics about what was discussed at Camp David even when asked, a source on the call, who asked to remain anonymous to share details of the private call, told NOTUS.

The source said there were “lots of people angry” with the lack of information from Johnson.

Members of the House Freedom Caucus also met with Russ Vought, Trump’s budget director, about a third reconciliation bill on Monday night to talk through the plans in more depth.

But the majority of rank-and-file House Republicans have been left in the dark.

“If they want to pass something, they gotta know how to count the 218,” Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick told NOTUS. “So again, I haven’t seen anything.”

Johnson hopes to have the House Budget Committee mark up budget instructions for the package on Thursday, sources told NOTUS. That timeline came as a surprise to many in the conference.

“I learned with everyone else online that this was getting marked up on Wednesday,” Fitzpatrick said. “I hadn’t heard that my colleagues in, you know, my orbit did not hear anything about it, so it was news to all of us.”

One Republican on the Budget Committee told NOTUS, “It’s so frustrating,”

“Nobody’s been looped into the plan,” another House Republican told NOTUS.

Another senior Republican said after the meeting that Johnson “didn’t give any details today,” but understood why Johnson didn’t want to keep everyone in the loop.

“The more people you involve here, the more chaos you create,” they said.

While the White House is pressing leaders to pass the bill next week, many Republicans are skeptical that any legislation will actually move until after the November midterms.

“Nothing happens until we get our ass beat in November, and then there will be this frantic reconciliation three,” the senior Republican member told NOTUS. “We will attempt to lock down as much stuff as we can, because there’ll be no more Trumpish legislation for the next two and a half years.”