Senate GOP punts party-line budget fight
The Senate decided to postpone voting on a party-line spending blueprint that would fund the ongoing conflict in Iran adn incorporate President Trump’s election integrity initiatives.Conservative Senators ron Johnson, Rick Scott, and Mike Lee communicated with Trump, who agreed to delay the vote until September to allow further GOP negotiations, avoiding a potentially damaging defeat before the Senate’s five-week recess.
The proposed legislation aimed to bypass the 60-vote filibuster through budget reconciliation, a process previously used for major bills like Trump’s tax cuts and immigration reforms. However, it faced opposition within the GOP due to its inclusion of election security measures from the SAVE America Act and insufficient Pentagon funding, with many Republicans preferring a higher defense budget.
initially, a vote was scheduled amid pressure from Trump and key Republican leaders like Johnson, who emphasized the importance of supporting national security, agriculture, and election integrity. The blueprint would have increased the deficit by up to $150 billion, with allocations for farmers, the Pentagon (about $60 billion, less than the White House’s $350 billion request), and multiple committees.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated that rushing an unsuccessful vote would be unwise, noting that if accomplished, it could lead to lengthy amendments delaying progress.The House had already approved a budget with up to $95 billion in total spending, and both chambers’ approval would enable passage of a reconciliation spending package with a simple majority. The Senate’s focus was also on other negotiation items, including a voter ID measure, with upcoming votes scheduled as part of the Senate’s summer schedule.
The Senate scrapped plans to vote on a party-line spending blueprint that funds the war in Iran and includes President Donald Trump‘s election integrity priorities on Friday, avoiding a doomed effort that would have delivered Republicans a setback just as the upper chamber prepared to leave for a five-week recess.
Instead, conservative Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Rick Scott (R-FL), and Mike Lee (R-UT), who were set to force the vote, told reporters they spoke with Trump and that he agreed on punting the legislation until they return in September to allow more time for GOP negotiations.
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The blueprint would have bypassed the 60-vote filibuster using the rules of budget reconciliation, the process utilized by Republicans last year to pass Trump’s tax bill into law and earlier this year for an immigration package. But the third bill has faced GOP resistance over its attempt to include elements of the SAVE America Act, an election security measure that is opposed by some centrists. Defense hawks also want to see more Pentagon funding included in the legislation.
A vote was initially set to be held in the face of pressure from Trump and those like Johnson, the Senate Budget Committee chairman and a lead author of the budget framework. He and conservative allies have made a relentless push for Republicans to advance it prior to the recess.
“When we have the finest among us — the men and women in our armed services — in harm’s way, it is beyond unfortunate that providing support for their efforts and protection has turned into a partisan issue,” Johnson said in a statement that accompanied release of the blueprint earlier in the day. “The same can be said for supporting farmers, our intelligence services, and election integrity.”
The proposal, which would allow Congress to increase the deficit by up to $150 billion, also includes billions in assistance for farmers and instructs 11 different committees. About $60 billion in the resolution is for the Pentagon and its war efforts in Iran, below what many Republicans would prefer and well shy of the $350 billion the White House is seeking.
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Its provisions are broadly priorities of leadership and the Trump administration, but the vote was considered premature, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) had been contemplating floor time for the measure sometime after the August recess.
Thune told reporters it was a “good question” why Republicans would hold a doomed vote. Had the motion to proceed been successful, it would have unlocked an open-ended amendment process known as a vote-a-rama that Democrats have used during past reconciliation bills to delay progress.
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The House-passed version, approved before the lower chamber embarked last month on its summer break, included up to $95 billion in total spending. Once both GOP-controlled chambers pass the same budget outline, they can approve a third reconciliation spending package with simple majorities.
The Senate vote was just one of several Thune was negotiating in a deal to send senators home for the rest of August. The chamber was set to vote as early as late Friday or early morning Saturday on a separate, trimmed-down voter ID proposal from Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) that failed to attract any Democratic votes in February.
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