Congress
Senate GOP mulls vote on budget blueprint next week
Senators are bracing for a likely battle next week over the GOP’s budget blueprint that will allow Republicans in the coming weeks to draft and pass a sweeping border, energy and defense bill.
Majority Leader John Thune hasn’t made a formal decision yet about whether he’ll bring the Senate’s budget resolution up for a vote on the chamber floor. But several GOP senators view it as increasingly likely that they will act next week after the Senate Budget Committee adopted the measure on Wednesday.
Sen. John Hoeven, a North Dakota Republican who is close with Thune, said in a brief interview that the “planned timeline right now” is to take up the Senate GOP’s budget resolution to the floor next week.
Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham of South Carolina noted that he would defer to Thune, but told reporters: “Hopefully next week.”
It’s not just Republicans who are gearing up. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will hold a special Democratic caucus call on Saturday to discuss party strategy around the budget resolution and “Republicans tax cuts for the rich,” according to a Senate aide.
A second aide, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said that Senate Republicans haven’t yet confirmed that they will bring their budget resolution to the floor next week, but procedural votes are a possibility as soon as Tuesday.
Being able to adopt the budget resolution next week would put the Senate even further ahead of the House in dueling efforts to pave the way for drafting a massive bill under the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process — necessary for enacting the heart of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.
The Senate GOP still wants to take a “two-track” approach, frontloading energy, defense and border security provisions into one reconciliation bill before dealing with expiring tax cuts in a second one later. The budget resolution that cleared Graham’s committee earlier this week greenlights the first bill in that process.
House Republicans, however, want to pass “one big, beautiful bill” that encompasses all these policy areas plus a tax overhaul. They were able to clear their budget blueprint out of the House Budget Committee on Thursday night to set the stage for that approach after weeks of high-profile infighting amongst their own members.
Tensions on the House side appear as though they won’t be ending anytime soon, with some fiscal hawks calling for more cuts while swing-state incumbents fret over having to cut safety net programs to pay for Trump’s priorities. The House budget resolution is already drawing criticism from some Senate conservatives.
The Senate has an advantage over the House, now, if for no other reason than it that chamber is staying in session next week while the other is in recess.
House Republican leaders had been trying to hold off the Senate advance, including by coordinating with some White House officials who are sympathetic to the one-bill strategy. But complicating that effort are fissures within Trump’s own circle over the best path forward: Vice President JD Vance, White House policy chief Stephen Miller and budget chief Russ Vought among those favoring the Senate’s preferred two-bill approach.
Senate Republicans also privately vibe-checked Trump during a dinner last week at Mar-a-Lago, and again on Sunday when a group of lawmakers joined him for the Super Bowl. Their takeaway was that the president was fine with them pursuing their two-bill strategy and just wants “results.”
Thune, asked about the path forward during an interview Friday with America’s Newsroom on Fox News, didn’t tip his hand on the schedule for next week.
“[The House and the Senate] have the same end result, end goal. I mean, we want to get to the same destination,” he said. “The House and the Senate operate differently, clearly, and we have procedural issues we have to deal with in the Senate. But … these efforts are going to, at some point — they’re going to merge.”
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Senate Budget Committee Republicans will meet Tuesday morning to talk about advancing a fiscal blueprint for a new party-line spending bill.
Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) declined to say , in an interview Monday if he plans to introduce a resolution this week, noting that he was “working with leadership” and that the “first priority” is to pass a stopgap spending bill. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a panel member, said he didn’t expect the Senate to take up a budget resolution this week because “I don’t think my leadership wants to do it.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune hasn’t ruled out taking up a budget resolution but has been frank about the challenges it faces among GOP senators.
The Senate’s stopgap funding bill to avert a shutdown on Oct. 1 has cleared the first procedural hurdle, putting it on track for passage before lawmakers leave for the August recess.
Senators voted 89-4 to advance the measure, which would fund federal agencies through Dec. 11 at current levels, with some exceptions.
In order for a passage vote to happen ahead of the summer break, Senate leaders will need to strike a bipartisan time agreement to fast-track the measure to a final vote.
“It is a strong bipartisan piece of legislation, and I hope it will receive overwhelming support from both parties in the Senate,” Majority Leader John Thune said in a Monday floor speech.
Senate passage would up a potential battle with the House, because the stopgap measure the House passed two weeks ago has key differences from the Senate version. Identical versions must be passed to actually avert a shutdown at the end of the fiscal year.
The Senate measure includes language to bar the Trump administration from putting into action a plan to make political appointees in charge of approving grants, a prohibition that would last for the length of the stopgap. It also has language sought by Democrats to ensure Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement don’t get any new funding under the patch.
“The bill allows us to continue negotiating a budget that won’t leave working families behind,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday.
The White House did not respond to multiple requests for comment about if President Donald Trump supports the Senate measure. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), an appropriator and administration ally, said Monday he had spoken to Trump earlier in the day and believed the president is “comfortable” with the Senate bill.
Jordain Carney and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
Jack Smith, the former special counsel who brought criminal charges against President Donald Trump, has been invited to testify Sept. 22 before the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to an invitation from Chair Chuck Grassley reviewed by Blue Light News.
Smith previously testified before the House Judiciary Committee in January, but Grassley (R-Iowa) and his team have been probing Smith and his investigations for months.
Grassley recently revealed that Smith obtained text messages that 44 members of Congress sent to White House officials during the waning months of Trump’s first term leading up to and around the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Grassley’s texts were among those accessed by Smith’s team, along with Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).
“In the process of a deeply flawed, weaponized investigation, Jack Smith subpoenaed phone toll records from a dozen senators, scooped up text messages from over 40 members of Congress, and subpoenaed the private communications and financial records of hundreds of other Republican entities and individuals,” Grassley said in a statement.
“He needs to answer directly to Congress for his actions,” Grassley added. “Smith has requested to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and our committee looks forward to hearing from him as part of Congress’ investigation into Arctic Frost and his time as Special Counsel. Smith must be honest and forthcoming in his answers, because the American people deserve nothing less than full transparency and accountability.”
Lawyers for Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
During the January hearing, Republicans focused on technicalities of how Smith investigated the probe into Trump’s election interference, such as whether he properly signed his oath of office and whether he was sufficiently versed on the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause that protects members of Congress from criminal investigation for their lawmaking actions.
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