The Senate pulled an all-nighter this week, passing a $340 billion reconciliation resolution just before 5 a.m. on Friday. The ten-hour “vote-a-rama” saw 33 amendments considered. When all was said and done, the measure passed 52-48, with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) as the only Republican to join all the Democrats in opposing. That’s a lot of work for something that very well might flop.

While this resolution technically goes to the House now, the lower chamber already has its own version in the works – which it still plans to vote on next week. President Donald Trump has expressed his preference for the House bill, as well. Were the Senate’s efforts all for naught?

“The House and Senate are doing a SPECTACULAR job of working together as one unified, and unbeatable, TEAM, however, unlike the Lindsey Graham version of the very important Legislation currently being discussed, the House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it!” Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday, finally picking a preference after weeks of refusing to commit.

The Senate bill, introduced by Budget Committee Chair Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), would make $340 billion available to fund border security and the president’s deportation efforts. It does not, however, address the renewal of Trump’s tax cuts, which are set to expire on December 31.

The House bill, which should see a vote sometime next week, provides funds for border security. It also includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $4 trillion to increase the debt limit.

It’s easy to see why the president prefers the House package – it addresses more of his agenda. However, there is concern that the lower chamber won’t actually be able to pass it. Sen. Graham suggests, though, that his bill could make a good backup.

“To my House colleagues: We will all get there together. If you can pass the one big, beautiful bill that makes the tax cuts permanent — not four or five years — then we’ll all cheer over here. Nothing would please me more than Speaker [Mike] Johnson being able to put together the bill that President Trump wants,” he said on the Senate floor Thursday before voting began. “I want that to happen, but I cannot sit on the sidelines and not have a plan B.”

So now, should the House bill fail in either chamber, the “plan B” is halfway to law already. It would just have to clear the House.

Once the vote was queued up Thursday evening, the rules of the chamber allowed an unlimited number of amendments. Democrats attempted to stall or perhaps even kill the bill with many – like one (which failed) that would have required all tax cuts for the wealthy to stop if a single dollar of Medicaid was touched.

Just two amendments passed. One, offered by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), would create a “deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to protecting Medicare and Medicaid.” Democrats opposed it but failed to stop it. “The language in this amendment is code for kicking Americans with Medicaid coverage off their health insurance if they’re not sick enough, not poor enough, or not disabled enough,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said in opposition.

So when can America expect to see the finalized budget? Vice President JD Vance, who met with senators during the week, believes it may be as late as May or June – and he calls that an “ambitious timeline.”

“I think the president has learned a lot about how D.C. works,” Vance said during an appearance Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “And I actually talked to the president about this yesterday, and he said to me, ‘Look, it’s very rare that you can get two reconciliation bills done in one Congress,’ which is why he thinks we’ve got to do a lot with that one big beautiful bill.”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), however, expressed his doubts about the process. “The budget resolution is just patty cake. The real work begins when you start putting together the bill and the pay-fors,” he said. “The only prediction I’ll make is that a reconciliation bill will not pass either the House or the Senate without substantial spending reductions.” In any case, Speaker Johnson’s dream of a completed budget in the president’s first hundred days now seems unlikely.