The U.S. Senate on Thursday began a debate on a Republican bill to advance President Donald Trump’s priorities on immigration, energy and defense, even after he urged lawmakers to scrap the effort in favor of a House of Representatives bill that would also include trillions of dollars in tax cuts.
Trump this week came down firmly in favor of House Republicans’ plan for a single sweeping bill. Backers of that plan fear that passing an immigration bill first could diminish their chances of extending $4.5 trillion in tax cuts in the House, where Republicans hold a narrow and fractious 218-215 majority.
Senate Republicans said they would nonetheless push ahead with their narrower plan and address tax cuts in a later bill. They are seeking to bypass Democratic opposition in that chamber and secure an early legislative win for Trump.
Democrats lack the votes to stop the bill but have vowed to fight it as long as possible, accusing Republicans of shortchanging American families to benefit the wealthy with tax breaks.
“We’re going to be here all night,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer proclaimed just before voting on amendments that began Thursday evening.
Schumer introduced the first amendment, which seeks to prohibit tax cuts for those earning more than $1 billion. Republicans blocked the amendment.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine put the Senate on notice that he alone was seeking debate on about two dozen amendments ranging from middle-class tax cuts to measures protecting federal workers from termination and social safety net programs from cuts.
Republican Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said earlier in the evening that there was an urgent need to beef up border security and the U.S. military. He argued that the higher spending ordered in the legislation would be “offset with $342 billion in cuts in other parts of the government.”
In a rarely used Senate process known as a “vote-a-rama,” amendments can be offered until both parties agree to stop. Normally, the two parties agree upon a narrow set of amendments for debate in the full Senate on legislation.
Republicans, who hold a 53-47 advantage over Democrats in the Senate, were expected to defeat scores of opposition amendments.
Both chambers of Congress need to pass the same budget resolution to unlock the parliamentary tool that would enable Republicans to enact Trump’s legislative agenda in a way that circumvents Democratic opposition and the Senate filibuster.
Democrats made use of this maneuver in the first two years of Joe Biden’s presidency, when they held majorities in both chambers of Congress.
The Senate’s bill, which leaves the issue of Trump’s desired extension of his 2017 tax cuts to a later date, could serve as a backup in case the House Republicans cannot agree on how to pay for the tax cuts in their bill without slashing funding for popular safety net programs like Medicaid and Social Security or potentially adding to the country’s $36 trillion debt.
The Senate measure, a $340 billion fiscal 2025 budget resolution, would boost spending by $85 billion a year for four years to fund tighter border security, Trump’s deportation of immigrants in the country illegally, energy deregulation, and an increase in military spending.
The House budget resolution includes those same priorities along with $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, while seeking to cover the cost through $2 trillion in spending cuts and accelerated economic growth based mainly on the tax and energy policy changes it would usher in.
