House Republicans Struggle to Pass Budget Bill as Democrats Seek to Flip Key Votes
Major changes involving spectrum escape scrutiny as debates rage over healthcare and tax cuts
WASHINGTON, July 2, 2025 – House Democrats mounted a last-ditch effort Wednesday as they targeted four Republicans in a bid to flip the vote against President Donald Trump’s budget reconciliation bill.
In a press event Wednesday morning, House Democrats gathered on the East Steps of the U.S. Capitol, spelling out how the American public will be impacted by the passage of this bill. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced, “every single House Democrat will vote ‘hell no’ against this one big, ugly bill. All we need are four House Republicans to join us.”
As of 5 p.m., Wednesday, Republican leaders were struggling to gain enough support to move forward on the bill.
One of the Senate bill’s most consequential tech provisions – a multi-year ban on states’ ability to regulate artificial intelligence – was stripped from the Senate version of the budget bill on Tuesday. But differences remained between the House and Senate versions, particularly on spectrum policy.
FROM SPEEDING BEAD SUMMIT
Panel 1: How Are States Thinking About Reasonable Costs Now?
Panel 2: Finding the State Versus Federal Balance in BEAD
Panel 3: Reacting to the New BEAD NOFO Guidance
Panel 4: Building, Maintaining and Adopting Digital Workforce Skills
While the House version of the bill passed on May 22 had a smaller target of identifying 600 megahertz of spectrum for the Federal Communications Commission to auction, and explicitly protected the 6 GigaHertz (GHz) band from counting toward the quota, the Senate version removed those protections.
Broader debate over healthcare and tax cuts
The spectrum provisions, which could reshape access to critical Wi-Fi and broadband frequencies, have received little public attention amid the broader debate over healthcare and tax cuts.
In an exchange with Broadband Breakfast, Rep. Benny Thompson, D-Miss., appeared unfamiliar with the Senate’s proposal to auction additional spectrum.
“I’ve not been focused on that,” the lawmaker said. “I’ve been focused more on the Medicaid [cuts] because they’re going to be disastrous for so many Americans.”
On the House floor Wednesday afternoon, over 100 Democratic representatives lined up to request the same thing: an amendment to the resolution before the House to protect against any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which provides monthly financial assistance to low-income individuals and families to help them buy food.
Following that, the House floor remained open for over two hours on procedural votes as Republican leaders struggled to gain enough support to move forward with debate on the bill.
Democratic leadership rallied throughout the day to blast the bill as a direct attack on vulnerable Americans.
“Unimaginably, this bill is worse than when it left the House,” said Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass, speaking on the House steps Wednesday morning. “It cuts Medicaid by $1 trillion dollars, it kicks 17 million Americans off of their healthcare…. It hikes the cost of electricity, it hands a 3 percent pay cut to hardworking people of this country, and hands their children $5 trillion dollars in debt.”
“We will continue to do everything in our power to stop this bill in its tracks,” Jeffries said.
Broadband Breakfast Reporter Cameron Marx contributed to this report.
