Senate Republicans are preparing to move forward next week on a budget blueprint that sets up their two-track approach to enacting President Donald Trump’s domestic agenda.
The timeline was discussed during a closed-door conference meeting on Wednesday, where Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) walked his colleagues through the fiscal blueprint that they need to pass before they can get to work on a party-line border, energy and defense bill.
“It’s time for the Senate to move,” Graham told reporters after the meeting. “Hopefully we’ll get started next week marking it up in committee.”
Four Republicans who attended the closed-door lunch confirmed that the plan is for the Budget Committee to vote next week.
Senate Republicans’ decision to pull the trigger on their own plan comes after they’ve waited weeks to see if House Republicans would be able to get “one big, beautiful bill” that also includes an overhaul of the tax code off the ground. It also comes before senators meet with President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Friday night, where they are expected to ask for his blessing to get moving.
House Republicans wanted to move their own budget blueprint through committee this week, with a floor vote next week. But hard-liners hold enough seats on the House Budget Committee to block that plan, and they are pushing for deeper cuts than what Speaker Mike Johnson initially proposed.
Senate Republicans are increasingly skeptical that Johnson will ever be able to unify his conference.
“I understand the desire for one big, beautiful bill, but it just wasn’t going to happen. It’s too complex,” said Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who is proposing that Republicans do not two but three reconciliation bills.
The House speaker pushed back on the Senate preparing to move on its own budget resolution, warning that it would face a hard road getting through the House GOP’s mathematical buzzsaw.
“He has to understand the reality of the House,” Johnson said about Graham to reporters. “It’s a very different chamber with very different dynamics, and the House needs to lead this if we’re going to have success.” He added that he was “comfortable” and “optimistic” about where things among House Republicans stood.
House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) said earlier Wednesday that he expects the House to release a one-bill budget blueprint and schedule their own committee vote by the end of the week.
The Senate’s budget resolution is expected to include roughly $150 billion for border security and a similar “range” for defense spending, Graham told reporters after the lunch. The Armed Services Committee is expected to be tasked with coming up with the spending for the military, while the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and Judiciary Committee will tackle the border spending.
Graham said the border, energy and defense bill will be paid for with offsetting spending cuts or revenue-raisers, but he didn’t immediately detail what they might be. Instead, he said that the budget resolution will instruct relevant committees to go find the necessary pay-fors.
Senate Republicans have a 53-seat majority, giving them slightly more room for error than the House enjoys. But they’ll need to wrangle their own members, some of whom want to see steep spending cuts attached to their overall reconciliation efforts. Graham indicated that there will be additional spending cuts, but he didn’t specify a number or whether they would be included as part of initial border, energy and defense bill or as part of a tax package that Senate Republicans would still need to negotiate and pass later this year.
“Just like the House, in the Senate, the resolution is not going to pass in my conference without substantial spending reductions,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Budget Committee.
Lisa Kashinsky and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
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