Senate Majority Leader John Thune teed up a vote this week for the Senate’s budget blueprint to move chunks of President Trump’s agenda.
The vote this week, while the House takes a week off, will speed ahead the Senate’s version of the plan to pass Mr. Trump’s priorities.
The budget blueprint from Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, is far smaller in scope than the House’s version. It sets instructions for forthcoming legislation featuring up to $345 billion in funding for border security, immigration enforcement and defense needs.
Mr. Thune, South Dakota Republican, said it was “time to act” on Mr. Trump’s agenda.
“Securing the border, rebuilding our defense, and unleashing American energy,” Mr. Thune said on X. “That starts this week with passing Chairman [Graham’s] budget. Let’s get it done.”
The Senate’s budget instructs the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees in both chambers to provide $175 billion for border security and immigration enforcement measures, and also directs the Armed Services committees to come up with $150 billion for defense.
The Transportation committees would also be able to contribute up to $20 billion for the Coast Guard to assist with border security and defense.
The new spending would be spread over the next four years. Mr. Graham said he intends for all new spending to be offset, and his first blueprint sets a floor of $5 billion in deficit reduction instructions across the handful of committees.
But his move leapfrogs the House, where Republicans had struggled up until last week to produce a budget plan. The two chambers also have different views of how best to proceed with Mr. Trump’s agenda.
The Senate wants to pass two bills, splitting defense, border and immigration enforcement from the much more difficult lift of extending the president’s tax cuts. The House has stood firm that “one big, beautiful bill” is the best vehicle, and one that would most likely be able to pass the lower chamber.
The House is expected to take up its budget blueprint when lawmakers return next week.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, reaffirmed his chamber’s commitment to the one bill strategy.
“Securing the border, opening up American energy to lower costs, keeping tax rates low (including no tax on tips), strengthening our national defense, a two-year extension of the debt ceiling, and passing into law DOGE’s identified waste in government,” Mr. Scalise said on social media. “All of Trump’s priorities in one big, beautiful bill start moving when we pass [House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington’s] budget.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said in a statement that the House’s budget blueprint implements all of Mr. Trump’s agenda in one proposal, “not just parts of it with promises to come back later for the rest.”
The House GOP’s blueprint, which passed out of committee last week, crams all of the president’s policy desires, including extending his 2017 tax cuts, into one, colossal package.
Indeed, the blueprint calls for $1.5 trillion in spending cuts to help offset $4.5 trillion in tax cuts. A deal was struck among hard-liners in the House Freedom Caucus and Republican leadership to seek at least $2 trillion.
If committees cut more than $2 trillion, tax writers can go further with tax cuts. If they fall short of that line, the Ways and Means Committee’s ceiling for tax cuts also falls.
Both chambers will have to agree on a final product before moving forward with the much more difficult work of piecing together policy and spending cuts for the budget reconciliation process, which bypasses a Senate filibuster and will enable Republicans to ram it through in party-line votes.
Meanwhile, Mr. Thune’s move will likely be met with resistance from Senate Democrats, who can bog down the process with amendments. Senators can introduce an unlimited number of amendments and slow down the chamber with hours of debate and votes.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.