House GOP budget chief moves forward after McCarthy beef

A congressional budget chief’s job often looks thankless: Toil to unite your party around a detailed fiscal plan — and then watch your opponents use it to attack your agenda.

But this year, House Budget Chair Jodey Arrington‘s (R-Texas) experience may have set a new low for the futility of the role.

The chatty Bush administration alum from West Texas is learning how difficult it is to lead the budget panel when intra-party politics disrupt the mission of fiscal hawks, even with backup from allies like Majority Leader Steve Scalise and the 25-member Texas Republican delegation. Arrington found both his reputation and his budget-writing aspirations undercut, as Speaker Kevin McCarthy asserted control over the House GOP conference’s initial proposal in debt-limit talks.