Rep. Diane Black who has led a one-woman whip operation on the budget this summer. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Black presses Ryan for vote on budget resisted by conservatives

The House GOP’s budget chief Tuesday urged House Speaker Paul Ryan to bring the budget to the floor this month, even though her hard-fought fiscal outline lacks the 218 votes needed for passage.

House Budget Chairman Diane Black, frustrated by her party’s divisions, is daring die-hard conservatives to vote no, forcing them to take the fall for choking off the party’s chances at tax reform.


“Sometimes when you get this close, perhaps you just need to put it on the floor,” Black (R-Tenn.) told POLITICO in a 30 minute interview. “I have made the case to the leadership, that I think it’s time.”

“I am restless. I want to have it done,” she said.

The rest of the Budget Committee Republicans emerged from a closed-door meeting Tuesday also saying that the committee-approved budget, H. Con. Res. 71 (115), needs to go to the floor.

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Black, who has led a one-woman whip operation on the budget this summer, said Ryan and other members of leadership must link the budget to the GOP’s dream of tax reform.

“I encourage him to do more to make sure that there is an understanding, that in order to do tax reform, you need to do a budget,” Black said. The budget includes instructions for a reconciliation bill that would pave the way for passage of tax reform with just 51 votes in the Senate.

Black is pushing for a vote the final week in September, though she said it's not the "last chance."

She would not say how many votes short she is, but acknowledged she’s still encountering resistance from conservatives demanding more details on tax reform. Members of the House Freedom Caucus have refused to back Black’s budget until GOP leaders reveal a comprehensive tax plan.

Asked on Tuesday afternoon whether the Freedom Caucus would support the GOP’s budget on the floor, Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of the group, quickly replied, “No,” and said he’s still waiting for tax details.

“I don't think anything’s changed at this point, other than they’re whipping a lot harder than they were before,” Meadows (R-N.C.) told POLITICO.

Black has argued that Freedom Caucus is handling things backwards. She said members must first agree on budget reconciliation — the tool that would fast-track tax reform in the Senate — before they can flesh out details.

“It is a budget. It gives us the vehicle to do tax reform. If you don’t like the tax reform, your vote can be no then. But at least follow the process,” Black said.

Black has spent months peddling her sweeping budget document, buttonholing dozens of members on the floor and logging hours on the phone to clear its first hurdle in July.

Republican leadership decided last week to formally take the temperature of the full GOP conference. That first official vote count came up short, with some undecided members.

Still, Black said she believes enough members would feel pressure to change their votes if they saw the bill on the floor.

“Sometimes people will tell you, ‘I don't know, I’m uncertain,’ and then when they see the votes go up on the board, they’ll see with their own eyes that there’s good support,” Black said.

The grim prospects for the House GOP budget have prompted some members close to leadership to float the use of a “shell” budget instead. That would strip out all pieces of the budget — including the $200 billion in mandatory cuts — except tax reform.

If so, it would be the second straight year that House Republicans were forced to abandon their comprehensive budget blueprint in favor of a simpler way to get to reconciliation.

And it’s a largely unpopular idea for the House GOP. Black said she’s talked to many members who feel they were promised a chance to vote on a budget that has "some meat” in it after passage of January’s shell budget to repeal Obamacare.

“I would caution, from my experience only, that a shell budget is going to be difficult to pass in this House,” Black said. “You ask them to do it again, I’m not sure sure that they fall for that.”

The path to a GOP budget has been chaotic and uneven — one that Black, a former nurse, compared to the inside of the ER.

She has settled dozens of internal feuds and dealt with 11 House chairmen to reach a deal on massive entitlement cuts. It would be the only GOP budget in recent memory to tack on mandatory spending cuts to a budget vehicle intended for a big policy overhaul like tax reform.

The Tennessee Republican coordinated the effort as she laid the groundwork for a gubernatorial campaign in her home state, which she formally announced in August.

Black had planned to give up her gavel in early September, assuming the House would finally approve the budget by then.

She said she hasn’t decided when to formally step down, though several members have been jockeying to replace her. Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) is widely seen as the front-runner in the race, sources told POLITICO.

Black, who has served alongside Womack on the Budget Committee for seven years, said he would do a “great, great job.”

“He’s one of my best friends and one of the smartest people that I know,” she said.