Republican senators push for a $340 billion budget framework to pass early Friday, releasing the money they need for massive deportation and border security that surpass their agenda. With a step forward, I followed overnight sessions and democratic opposition.
The hour-long “llama” was horrifying, but caught up in a crucial part of the budget process, as the senators came up with revisions after revision, and mostly from Democrats. However, Republicans used the power of a majority to muscularize the package to get approval, 52-48, mostly political party and line votes.
“What we’re doing today is to jumpstart the process that allows Republicans to meet President Trump’s immigration agenda,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham opened up a debate. He spoke while he was there.
Graham told the Senators that President Donald Trump’s top immigrant emperor, Tom Homan, said the administration’s deportation campaign was “a lack of money.”
With little authority to stop the onslaught of minorities, Democrats instead use one night debate to force potentially embarrassing votes, including the first vote, when blocking GOP senators into billionaires I did. I was turned back for procedural reasons. So did many others.
“This will be a long, drawn out fight,” warned New York Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
The package is what Republicans see as a down payment on Trump’s agenda and is part of a broader effort that includes a law that will ultimately extend tax cuts of around $4.5 trillion and other priorities. . It is being assembled by House Speaker Mike Johnson in a separate budget package that seeks to cuts by up to $2 trillion in healthcare and other programs.
Trump likes what he calls “a big and beautiful bill,” but the White House first worked on the border package and is now open to the Senate strategy of relying on tax cuts later this year .
When the votes begin, the president signaled that it was ahead of him and thanked Senate majority leader John Tune and Republican Senators.
What is in the Senate GOP package?
The Republican Senate package allows up to $175 billion to be spent on border security, including funding for a massive deportation operation and the construction of a US-Mexico border wall. .
However, there are several steps in the process, so the money hasn’t flowed yet. A budget resolution is simply a framework that sends directions to various Senate committees of Homeland Security, Armed Services and Judicial Affairs to bring out the details. Eventually everything will be assembled into a different package, with another vote going to be a llama in the future.
Sen. John Barrasso, second-ranked Senator, Republican, said the need to act quickly and manage the resources GOP lawmakers have requested and curb illegal border crossings.
“Budget allows us to finish the walls and we are taking the necessary steps towards more border agents,” Barrasso said. “It means more detention beds. …It means more deportation.”
Republicans argue that potential spending cuts and new revenues will not be stacked up in debt, but everything will be paid.
The committee has been approved by Democrats as part of its climate change strategy in the Inflation Reduction Act, and rolls back methane emissions fees from the Biden administration, hoping to pull new revenues from energy leasing aimed at domestic energy production. It is expected to be considered.
One of the amendments accepted after hours of discussion was, in fact, the Republican effort to dodge criticism that packages would be paid for by cutting down safety net programs. The amendments from R-Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan said Medicaid and Medicare will be strengthened during the budget process.
The Democrats are ready for the fight
The first thing that happened from Democrats was a vote to prevent billionaires from cutting taxes. This is a recurring fix in various ways throughout the night.
Democrats argue that the GOP tax cuts approved in 2017 will flow to the wealthiest Americans and expand them to what Trump hopes to show off to Congress later this year. The billionaire fix failed, but was supported by the Republicans. Maine Sen. Susan Collins voted for some of them, while Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley voted for another.
Schumer launched his strategy earlier this week and used budget debates to focus on both the impact of tax policy and the efficiency of the Trump administration’s government, which is being cut across the federal government.
It’s a better approach for Democrats than oppose the strict border security and deportation that divides the party.
The senators have processed nearly 30 amendments to overturn Doge’s cuts, protect federal workers from being fired, and secure support for Ukraine in the fight against Russia and elsewhere.
Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a top Democrat on the Senate Approvals Committee, said the single biggest factor in national debt since 2001 was a Republican-led series of tax cuts.
“And we never speculate that our Republican colleagues on the other side of the aisle are now focusing on nothing to cut the cost of eggs. In fact, the Republicans are It’s a tax cut,” Murray said.
She called the budget plan “all the painful reduction roadmap to the programs families rely on every day can give billionaires more tax cuts.”
The Congress is competing for itself
Budget resolutions set what was once a rare settlement process, but as Republicans now do, parties and Congress are administered by the White House and Congress. It is a tool that is often used to pass large bills on party and party votes when it controls. .
But Republicans are debating with themselves how to proceed. The house is moving ahead with the “big and beautiful bill” and believes they have one chance to get it right. The Senate considers its two-bill strategy to be more practical, providing border security first and then relying on taxes later.
Budget rules allow simple majority votes to pass. This is important in the Senate, which usually pays 60 votes to beat the filibuster with a big item. During Trump’s first term, Republicans used the settlement process in 2017 to take advantage of GOP tax cuts. Democrats have used a settlement during Joe Biden’s presidency to approve the Covid-19 relief and inflation reduction law.
Trump appears to be stirring the fight, fighting Republicans in the House, opposing senators against each other, and seeing which reaches the fastest.
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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
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