Axios Event: Rep. McClain confident on House budget resolution by Valentine's Day

WASHINGTON – House Republican Conference Chair Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) thinks that a budget resolution will make it out of the House by Valentine's Day, she said at a Feb. 5 Axios event.

Why it matters: Stalled budget reconciliation negotiations in the House are standing in the way of lawmakers eager to move President Trump's legislative agenda forward, stoking frustration and chaos on Capitol Hill.

Axios' Hans Nichols and Axios Pro's Maria Curi spoke with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and McClain at the News Shapers event, which was sponsored by Bank of America.

What they're saying: "I don't believe we're going to take the vote on the budget resolution this week. The bottom line is, the clock is ticking, and we can't agree on the number or the principle of the number," McClain said.

When asked whether she thinks a budget resolution will come out of the House by Valentine's Day, McClain said she thinks that it will.

• "I think the answer is yes, because my fear is if we don't have a budget resolution out of the House by Valentine's Day, we're going to get jammed by the Senate. I think that's just the reality," McClain said.

A flurry of executive orders from Trump in the first few weeks of his second presidency, Elon Musk's growing political influence as head of the DOGE team, and back-and-forth rhetoric on tariff threats have generated some confusion among lawmakers and stalled decision-making on key legislative matters, the congress members said.

• Some policymakers are concerned about how this could impede negotiations to finalize government funding and avert a government shutdown as the March 14 deadline looms.
• "At the end of the day, do the Democrats really want to own the government shutdown? I don't know, that's up for them to decide. But there's a lot of politics that goes into play," McClain said.

Trump's approach to tariffs on China "throws everything into uncertainty," Krishnamoorthi said, with retaliatory tariffs set to come into effect on Feb. 10.

• "I think that we are in a period where both consumers, producers, [and] others are not really sure what's going to happen, so they're going to hold up on their buying decisions. They're going to hold up on their investment decisions," Krishnamoorthi said.
• McClain views Trump's tariff threats as a means of getting other countries to change their behavior in ways that align with his policy objectives.
• "A lot of times just the mere negotiation or the threat of doing something gets an action, which at the end of the day is beneficial for the American people," McClain added.