As the fate of President Trump’s agenda hung in the balance in the House, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) turned to what he knows best: Prayer.

At the end of an hours-long, late-night meeting that came after Johnson was forced to scrap a key vote Wednesday night, the Speaker, a devout Southern Baptist, led a group of hardline conservative holdouts and members of leadership in a benediction for the conference to reach a solution and to receive guidance from God to do the right thing for the country, two sources in the room told The Hill.

The next day, his prayers would be answered. House Republicans adopted the Senate’s framework to advance Trump’s domestic policy priorities, officially kick-starting the process the party will use in its effort to enact tax cuts, border funding and energy policy.

Johnson, with the help of Trump, had managed to win over more than a dozen conservatives who had spent a week railing against the legislation and insisting there was little that could change their minds.

It was the fourth time Johnson has pulled off a nail-biter — following his re-election as Speaker in January, the adoption of the House’s budget blueprint in February, and passage of a government funding bill in March — muscling the measure through his razor-thin majority with no votes to spare.

On Thursday, Johnson took a victory lap.

“I want to compliment our president, President Trump, who is always engaged with us. He didn't have to call a single member to wrangle anybody on this thing,” Johnson told reporters after the vote. “He allowed me the space to do what I needed to do, and we got the votes together, and we reaffirmed our commitments. It’s real. We want to find real savings.”

But the process came with its usual share of drama, including a scrapped vote, entreaties from the White House, long meetings in the Capitol and tensions flaring on the House floor.

‘DEAD ON ARRIVAL’

The path to Thursday’s successful vote was an uphill battle from the start, with fiscal hawks quickly — and loudly — taking issue with the different level of spending cuts it requires of each chamber. The legislation directed House committees to find at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, while Senate panels were directed to slash at least $4 billion in federal spending — a fraction, in comparison.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told The Hill in a text message last Thursday, a day after the resolution was unveiled, that the framework was “DEAD ON ARRIVAL.”

And it was not just those on the right-flank incensed by the blueprint. Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), the chairman of the House Budget Committee, piled on, saying in a scathing statement that the legislation was “unserious and disappointing.”

Johnson and other GOP leaders tried to quell the early uprising.

In a letter to House Republicans on Saturday they argued that the different sets of instructions “in NO WAY prevents us from achieving our goals” in the final bill. On a Sunday conference call, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) sought to assure House Republicans they wouldn’t get jammed by the Senate numbers, according to a source on the call.

But by the time lawmakers returned to........

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