House conservatives are demanding a third GOP-only reconciliation bill to boost Pentagon funding and tackle alleged fraud in federal programs, aiming for passage before the August recess—a timeline that many see as overly ambitious given the party's razor-thin majority.
Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), chair of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in the House, is leading the charge. “We have to get this done before the August recess,” Pfluger said. “It’s ambitious. We know the process. We understand as a conference how to come together.”
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) also backs the August deadline. “We’re going to have to move quickly,” Arrington said. “I think we have 25 legislative days left before August break. We need to have something out of the House by then, at least. So, time is of the essence.”
This third reconciliation bill would build on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act—rebranded by Republicans as the “Working Families Tax Cut”—which President Trump signed last year. That earlier bill used the reconciliation process to bypass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, a tactic Republicans have two remaining chances to deploy this year. Their second shot is a “skinny” bill funding immigration enforcement and border security, tied to ending the record-long DHS shutdown. Fiscal hawks are eager not to waste the third and final opportunity.
“This bill allows us to make America affordable again. It allows us to make America secure, and it allows us to make America fraud-free,” Pfluger said of the emerging reconciliation 3.0 framework, which is being crafted behind the scenes. The Republican Study Committee earlier pitched a plan focused on affordability, including housing and energy reforms.
However, after Trump’s strikes on Iran and growing GOP focus on federal fraud, congressional leaders have coalesced around combining a Pentagon funding boost with anti-fraud measures. Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also wants to include voting reforms as a “down payment on the SAVE Act,” which would require voter ID and proof of citizenship for registration.
Pfluger argued that delivering on these priorities is critical for Republicans hoping to defy historical trends and retain the House. “When we go home during the August recess we can tell our constituents, here are the provisions that we heard you ask for, and we’ve done them,” he said, adding that tax provisions could take effect immediately upon the president’s signature. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told Politico last week he believes the summer timeline is feasible.
Yet skepticism abounds. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act took months of planning and legislative wrangling to pass. Any new bill must balance fiscal hawks’ demands for spending cuts with moderates’ concerns about unpopular cuts in a midterm election year. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.), one of only two Republicans who voted against the earlier reconciliation bill, said his support depends on details and bristled at a party-line approach. “I’m always inclined against reconciliation bills, because I don’t like single-party solutions,” Fitzpatrick said. “I like two-party solutions.”
With only two defections allowed on party-line votes in the House, the path for a third reconciliation bill is narrow. For more on the pressures facing GOP lawmakers, see our report on GOP lawmakers increasingly defying Trump as election pressures mount. Additionally, the Pentagon’s budget is under scrutiny amid Army Chief Driscoll’s upcoming House grilling on the $1.5T Pentagon budget.
