Senate Republicans will hold a committee vote next week on a budget blueprint that will unlock their two-bill strategy for enacting the heart of President Donald Trump’s domestic policy agenda.
Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) announced Friday that his panel will meet Wednesday and Thursday to debate and vote on the budget resolution, which paves the way for a border, defense and energy bill. Graham also released the text of his budget resolution Friday.
“This budget resolution jumpstarts a process that will give President Trump’s team the money they need to secure the border and deport criminals, and make America strong and more energy independent,” Graham said in a statement Friday about the budget resolution.
The formal announcement comes after Graham told Senate Republicans during a closed-door lunch Wednesday that his committee would vote next week on their budget blueprint. Senate Republicans will be at Mar-a-Lago on Friday night for a celebratory dinner with Trump where they intend to ask him about whether their chamber should move first on the budget reconciliation legislation.
The Senate is effectively in a race with the House, which wants to pursue one sweeping bill that would also fold in an overhaul of the tax code. House Republicans have been struggling to get on the same page regarding their strategy, which delayed their plans to consider their own budget resolution this week inside the House Budget Committee.
But after around-the-clock meetings this week, Republicans are intending to work through the weekend and want to have a vote in committee next week on their own budget blueprint, which would tie together tax, energy, border and defense spending.
