By Gabriella Borter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate wrangled long into the early hours of Friday morning 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 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 with their 53-47 majority 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 ultimately trying to short-change American families to benefit the wealthy with tax breaks.
“We’re going to be here all night,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer proclaimed at the start of the debate on amendments.
Schumer introduced the first amendment, which sought to prohibit tax cuts for those earning above $1 billion. Republicans blocked it.
Republican Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said on the Senate floor that there was an urgent need to beef up border security and the U.S. military, and argued that the higher spending ordered in the legislation would be “offset with $342 billion of cuts in other parts of the government.”
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.
The House Rules Committee is expected to take up that bill next week with the goal of advancing it to the full House.
SAFETY NET PROGRAMS 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 House Republicans cannot come to an agreement 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.
Trump has said he does not want to touch the safety net programs while also pushing for an extension of the tax cuts, presenting competing desires that congressional Republicans are struggling to translate into budget reality.
The only amendment that had been adopted by early Friday morning alluded to that tension. Republican Senator Dan Sullivan’s amendment would establish a “deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to protecting Medicare and Medicaid.”
“I know my Democratic colleagues are going to try tonight to use scare tactics to message that Republicans don’t support these vital programs, but we do,” Sullivan said.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden spoke in opposition to the amendment, saying it would do “nothing to stop Republicans from cutting these essential healthcare programs.”
Republican Senator Rand Paul introduced an amendment to cut spending by $1.5 trillion, representing the contingent of congressional Republicans that are wary of passing enormous spending bills without committing to tackling the national debt. The measure was rejected 74-26 with several Republicans joining Democrats in opposing it.
The debate was expected to stretch into early Friday morning in a rarely used Senate process known as a “vote-a-rama,” where 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.
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.
(Reporting by Gabriella Borter and Richard Cowan; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gregorio, Deepa Babington, Leslie Adler and Kim Coghill)
