Senate Republicans may not be able to pass President Donald Trump’s border security, energy, and tax agenda until July at the earliest due to internal differences, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) reportedly warned.
Thune has told fellow Republicans in the Senate that he wants a budget resolution moved forward in the “next work period” before the April recess, but added that the “finished product” is still months out from completion, a source told the Hill.
“Thune and others have said they don’t think it’s realistic we’ll move the finished product until the end of July,” another Republican senator said of the majority leader, adding that Thune “said he thought that the House’s timeline on this was totally unrealistic and that the House doesn’t have their ducks in a row, and their budget resolution has to be completely reworked, and this idea that we do it by April or May is just ridiculous.”
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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced in January that Republicans on his side of Congress had been “targeting April” to pass a budget reconciliation package that would encompass border security, energy reform, defense spendings, and extend the 2017 tax cuts, NBC News reported.
Johnson’s declaration came as Trump made his wishes clear to combine several of his policy points into “one big, beautiful bill.”
“I’ve put this on a very aggressive timetable,” the speaker said in a March 12 interview with Punchbowl News, adding that he wants to get it to the president’s desk “by the end of April or early May” in order to foster market “stability.”
“The people need to know that the tax cuts are going to be extended,” Johnson explained. “If you’re a small business owner trying to make a big decision about growth or purchasing a property or expanding jobs, it’ll be very helpful to you to know what your tax rate is going to be for the next few years. So, the sooner we get that done, the more certainty we have in the markets, I think it helps in every respect.”
In the Senate, yet another Republican told the Hill that internal party leadership has warned senators the package may not get passed until as late as September.
“Thune’s been having these small-group discussions, [and] in the one I was in, Senate Republicans were all over the map. There was no consensus,” the GOP senator told the outlet.
“I’m hoping that the House has a little clearer meeting of the minds than we do,” they senator added.
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According to a February statement from Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the House-passed budget needs “a major overhaul” before it could make it through the Senate.
Graham told the Hill that he hopes to get the package through the Senate before the August recess.
“I think that’s the goal. I hope so,” Graham said.
Defense spending is one of the major points of contention among Republican senators, with Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-MS) arguing the House-passed budget proposal that calls for a $100 billion direct defense spending increase is not enough.
“We’re going to need more than $150 billion in the reconciliation bill, if we’re going to be able to defend the country,” Wicker said, pointing to China and other foreign adversaries as growing threats. “It needs to be well over $150 billion. We’re looking north of $175 [billion].”
The senator added that he voted for the continuing resolution to keep the government funded until September 30, expecting that the reconciliation package will make up for what he perceives as a lack of funding for the Pentagon.
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