Sen. Lindsey Graham’s resolution called for $325 billion in spending on defense and border security. Democrats said it drives the US deeper into debt.
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate Budget Committee reported out a budget resolution on Feb. 12 that would begin the process of passing President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.
The vote tally was 11-10.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), convened the two-day meeting, which will conclude on Feb. 13. The markup process involves debating the text of the resolution, considering amendments, and holding a series of votes to prepare the bill for its transmission to the floor.
The Senate has begun a process that’s parallel to one in the House, with which there remain deep disagreements. The Senate Republican Conference intends to introduce two reconciliation bills, even as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has called for one. The Senate and House must pass exactly the same version of any budget reconciliation bill for it to be enacted.
Graham has said that the Senate is proceeding, despite the disagreements, due to policy urgency. “The problem we have now is that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is running out of money,” said Graham during a committee meeting.
“To my colleagues in the House, I hope you can pass one big, beautiful bill, meeting the priorities of President Trump and what we’ve been promising to do as a party, but we got to move on this issue,” he continued.
The budget reconciliation process allows for bills related to taxing, spending and the national debt to be passed by Congress without requiring cloture in the Senate, which takes 60 votes to avoid a filibuster. Before the reconciliation bills are even written, both houses of Congress must pass a concurrent budget resolution in order to begin the process.
The Republican Party plans to use the reconciliation process to enact policy priorities in Trump’s agenda on border security, energy independence, and tax cuts. A key feature of the plan is to reauthorize individual tax reforms included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which was itself a reconciliation bill passed during Trump’s first term.
During the meeting, as expected, Republicans made the case for the budget resolution while Democrats criticized it.
“We’ve got to control our spending and … do the critical work of restoring our border security, restoring our national security and unleashing the energy potential of this country,” said Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho).
Sen. Jeff Merkely (D-Ore.), the Budget Committee’s ranking member, said that Graham’s proposal “[drives] us deeper into debt” and that the cuts “will hurt families.” The expected cost of the whole package has not been estimated, though it is likely to exceed trillions of dollars.
Specifically, the bill would increase defense spending by $150 billion and spending on border security by $175 billion for the next decade. It also includes increasing the deficit by $175 billion for the judiciary, and $20 billion for transportation and infrastructure.
The bill includes just $4 billion in deficit cuts over a decade.
Among other provisions, the first reconciliation bill would fund the construction of a wall along the southern border and allow for the hiring of more U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents to carry out removal operations against illegal immigrants, according to the Senate Budget Committee. Trump’s principal campaign promise during the 2024 election was to launch a mass deportation.
For defense spending, the bill would fund measures to strengthen shipbuilding and the industrial base of the Navy, in addition to “building an integrated air and missile defense to counter threats to the U.S. homeland,” said the committee. Trump has vowed to build a missile defense system that covers the United States.
Finally, the bill would repeal the methane emissions fee implemented under the Biden administration. It would also promote onshore and offshore drilling lease sales to foster American energy independence, according to the committee.
