WASHINGTON — The front-runner to be the next top Republican on the House Budget Committee is eyeing a potential second reconciliation bill that could include tax and health care provisions that were dropped from the GOP’s “big, beautiful” package last summer.

Rep. Lloyd K. Smucker, R-Pa., the first entrant and heavy favorite in the race to succeed retiring Budget Chairman Jodey C. Arrington, R-Texas, said he would like to see an extension of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit as part of a future reconciliation bill.

That credit goes to employers who hire individuals from groups that face barriers to employment, such as veterans, ex-felons and recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, among others. The credit is set to expire at the end of this year.

“I think there were a number of pieces of tax policy that were not included in the bill that we did, and I’d love to see some of those provisions passed,” he said.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has pushed to do a second — and even a third — reconciliation package before the midterm elections, although the contours of a follow-up bill are still far from clear. But President Donald Trump has said he believes the reconciliation law that he signed in July is sufficient and that additional legislation is not necessary.

The looming expiration of enhanced health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act has sucked up most of the oxygen on Capitol Hill after Democrats made that extension the defining issue of the partial government shutdown.

Smucker said making “structural changes that bring down the premiums” would be a great goal and could be addressed either in reconciliation or a future bipartisan bill.

Arrington announced earlier this month that he would not seek reelection, opening his role on the Budget Committee in 2027. Smucker ran against Arrington and Georgia’s Earl L. “Buddy” Carter for the chairmanship in 2022, and he is now the committee’s vice chairman and seen as a strong contender for the position. Carter has announced plans to run for a Senate seat.

Key player in reconciliation

Smucker, first elected in 2016, played a major role in negotiating the fiscal 2025 budget resolution that paved the way for the reconciliation law. Smucker drafted a provision that tied the size of the eventual tax cut package to the amount of offsetting spending cuts, a move that won over necessary support from the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus.

The provision stated that tax writers could increase the deficit by only up to $4.5 trillion over a decade, mainly to extend the 2017 tax cuts. But the Ways and Means Committee was allowed that increase only if the other committees could achieve at least $2 trillion in spending cuts.

“That ended up really being an important part of the bill that passed on the House side, at least, and I think played into the ultimate reductions in projected spending that we were able to achieve,” Smucker said. “So I worked really, really hard with the chairman and with a lot of other folks to help accomplish that in the bill.”

Smucker said he believes the law will be deficit-neutral, after factoring in the economic growth he expects the country to achieve. The Congressional Budget Office does not agree, estimating instead that the law will increase deficits by $4.1 trillion over the next decade, including interest payments on the added debt service caused by the extensions of the tax cuts.

That estimate has upset some House Republicans, who have been critical of the CBO. Arrington has called for an independent audit of the nonpartisan budget agency to “cut through that partisanship that is in play every time you render a decision.”

Smucker said he supports Arrington’s audit idea to ensure that the CBO is working as “effectively, efficiently and accurately as possible.”

He said some of the criticism directed at the CBO at the time “was so that we didn’t have to find the savings that we ended up finding. But yes, CBO should be, I believe, more transparent about the models that they use to arrive at their projections.”

Goals for Budget panel

Smucker named two top priorities if he wins the Budget leadership post: getting a budget resolution adopted and sounding the alarm about the rising national debt.

While Republicans did adopt a budget for fiscal 2025, they haven’t attempted to move one for fiscal 2026, with their party’s tiny House majority making consensus difficult. But Smucker said he is hopeful that Congress could get back on track with annual budget resolutions, which set the parameters for appropriations bills.

No other members have publicly expressed interest in the Budget leadership role yet, although the Republican Steering Committee won’t meet to pick the next chairman or ranking member until after the 2026 midterm elections. Smucker, 61, said he wanted to get an early start communicating his interest with members of the steering committee and said he has gotten “some good feedback” from them.

Smucker, a former construction company president who represents a district in southeastern Pennsylvania, joined Arrington in questioning the Trump administration’s plan to use tariff revenue to cut $2,000 checks to low- and middle-income individuals next year. He said he’d prefer that tariff revenue be used to pay down the debt.

“I am very concerned about the debt. I would love to see that start to reduce the debt going forward, and so that would be my preference,” Smucker said. “But we’ll see what the president — I don’t know exactly what he’s talking about there.”

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