Senate GOP Plows Ahead With Budget Plan After Trump Backs Rival House Version

WASHINGTON—The Republican Conference of the U.S. Senate will proceed with its own budget plan to fund President Donald Trump’s policy initiatives, even after Trump himself rejected the plan on Feb. 19.

To fund many of Trump’s administrative and financial plans—such as constructing a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, removing all illegal immigrants from the United States, and extending provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017—Congress must enact new laws that authorize funding.

The regular procedure in the Senate to pass such bills would require 60 votes in favor of invoking “cloture,” so as to limit debate and end any “filibuster” running out of the clock by opponents. Given that Republicans have just 53 seats in the Senate, support of at least seven Democratic senators will be needed to invoke cloture—an unlikely outcome given the partisan nature of ongoing budget fights in Congress.

In lieu, Republicans in Congress have turned to the “budget reconciliation” process as an alternative mechanism to enact such bills. The process, albeit restrictive, allows Congress to pass financial legislation on which debate in the Senate is limited, thereby obviating the 60-vote cloture requirement.

Reconciliation bills can only affect taxation, spending, and public borrowing—thereby excluding pure policy changes, such as reforming immigration laws—and must not increase the federal budget deficit after 10 years, known as the “Byrd Rule.”

In order to begin a reconciliation process, the Senate and House of Representatives must concurrently pass a “budget resolution” for that Fiscal Year, which states the issue-areas where spending will be increased or cut, and instructs committees to make recommendations for the final bill.

Related Stories

It is at this initial stage where Republicans in the Senate and House have had the most disagreements, which concern strategy for the process.

The Senate seeks to pass two reconciliation bills for this Fiscal Year, with the first one focused on increasing spending on border security and the U.S. military. The reason for this approach is due to a lack of consensus over tax cuts, specifically concerning efforts to extend the TCJA’s provisions.

Senate Majority Leader John Randolph Thune (R-S.D.) has said that he seeks to make the TCJA’s reductions of tax rates “permanent,” which could cost as much as $4.5 trillion. In order to comply with the Byrd Rule, the bill will need to make significant spending cuts—raising fears that social programs such as Medicaid could be targeted, which would be politically damaging to some Republicans.

“[Medicaid] is on the table,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Thomas Jeffrey “Tom” Cole (R-Okla.) to The Epoch Times at his conference’s policy retreat in Doral, Florida, on Jan. 29.

In the House of Representatives, by contrast, Republican leaders have indicated that their conference can only, realistically, consider one reconciliation bill—due to wide disagreements on levels of government spending and the conference’s narrow 1-seat majority, meaning that two members could defeat a bill by joining Democrats in opposition.

The House’s budget resolution, which was advanced from committee to the floor on Feb. 13, also included levels of spending (on border security and the military) that were lower than the Senate’s resolution, suggesting the influence of fiscal conservatives on pruning funds in the eventual bill.

“For the House, the one-bill strategy makes the most sense. We have a very diverse conference,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at a news conference on Jan. 29 in Doral, Florida.

“We need both Chambers to pass the House Budget to ‘kickstart’ the Reconciliation process, and move all of our priorities to the concept of, ‘ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL,’” Trump said.

Senate Republicans, however, are unfazed by Trump’s rejection of their plan. “If the House can produce ‘one big, beautiful bill,’ we’re prepared to work with them … but we believe that the President also likes optionality,” Thune said at a press conference on Feb. 19.

Thune had previously vowed to pass the Senate’s budget resolution before Feb. 21. To that end, the Senate will hold several hours of debate and a series of votes on Feb. 20 in order to pass the resolution and begin the bill-drafting process in their house. The process will likely be prolonged as Democrats maximize the time for debate and introduce several amendments seeking to undermine the resolution.

Should the Senate pass the resolution, it remains unclear whether the House will consider it at all. The House plans to bring its own budget resolution to a floor vote next week, as confirmed by the office of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) to The Epoch Times.

Graham’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.