Washington — Senate Republicans unveiled a budget resolution on Wednesday, as the GOP seeks to move forward with the budget plan that will enable them to implement President Trump’s agenda later this week.
The Senate Budget committee released the 70-page budget resolution on Wednesday, which would serve as a blueprint, directing congressional committees to craft their own proposals to hit spending targets, increasing or decreasing funding by adjusting programs and policies that fall under their purview. The plan is a key step toward implementing the president’s priorities on border security, defense, energy and taxes. It aims to make the 2017 tax cuts permanent, along with authorizing $1.5 trillion in additional tax cuts, while raising the debt ceiling by as much as $5 trillion.
The blueprint is a compromise resolution that comes after a key meeting between Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Speaker Mike Johnson and top tax leaders last week. Though House and Senate Republicans had previously forged ahead with their own budget blueprints in recent weeks, the two chambers must adopt the same budget plan to continue on in the reconciliation process — a complicated maneuver that allows Congress to bypass the 60-vote threshold typically required to advance legislation in the Senate.
“It is now time for the Senate to move forward with this budget resolution in order to further advance our shared Republican agenda in Congress,” Thune said in a statement as the resolution was released.
Thune said the budget resolution will “pave the way for a generational investment in border security and national defense and unleash American energy dominance,” while demonstrating a commitment to “reducing the size and scope of the federal government by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.”
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The Senate set relatively low minimum floors for spending cuts for a number of committees, at just a few billion dollars, while it calls for at least $1.5 trillion in spending cuts over a 10-year period in the House. The Senate is expected to find far more than the floor outlined in the resolution, but the figures are aimed at giving them flexibility moving forward.
The Senate majority leader outlined to reporters earlier Wednesday that he plans to file the resolution on the floor after its release, which would start a clock of up to 50 hours of debate and set up a late week vote-a-rama, where senators are allowed to introduce an unlimited number of amendments and force the chamber to vote through the night. The timeline could set the House on a path to adopt the changes to the budget resolution next week, delivering a key win for President Trump and congressional Republicans before lawmakers leave town for Easter recess.
The budget resolution’s release comes as the majority leader and Senate Budget Committee Republicans met with President Trump earlier Wednesday at the White House, where Thune said committee members aired their views with the president.
Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, told reporters after the meeting that the members made the point that their priorities are to extend the Trump tax cuts, to further refine the tax code to encourage growth and extend the debt limit while reducing spending. And he noted that the meeting allayed some of the concerns of budget hawks.
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, said after the meeting that feels “a lot more comfortable” with the budget resolution, saying “there’s just a real commitment to returning the federal budget to a reasonable pre-pandemic baseline.”
The development also comes as Senate Republicans opted to proceed without the Senate parliamentarian’s sign off, arguing in recent days that they don’t need the parliamentarian’s permission to move ahead with the current policy baseline, an accounting approach that would make it appear that extending the current tax policy would cost nothing.
In order to approve legislation using the reconciliation maneuver, lawmakers must first approve a budget resolution and direct committees to craft bills reconciling spending with the new budget goals. The final product can only include provisions dealing with taxes, spending or the debt limit, and any new spending must be paid for. The Senate parliamentarian must also sign off on the package, confirming that the provisions have direct budgetary consequences, if an item is challenged.
Kennedy reiterated the widely held GOP position Wednesday that “we don’t need the parliamentarian’s permission,” arguing that the Budget Committee chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham, has the authority to make that decision on the current policy baseline. He projected that Senate Democrats will challenge it, but “they’ll lose.”
Graham said in a statement upon the resolution’s release that “I have determined that current policy will be the budget baseline regarding taxation.”
“This will allow the tax cuts to be permanent – which will tremendously boost the economy,” he added.
