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The decision to advance a narrowly focused budget reconciliation bill to fund immigration enforcement operations later this month has sparked a battle among Senate Republicans over whether to pass a third reconciliation bill before the election to enact other elements of President Trump\u2019s agenda before the midterm election. <\/p>\n
Some Republican senators want to advance a third budget reconciliation package this summer to allocate more money for the Department of Defense, but senior GOP colleagues on the Senate Appropriations Committee are slamming the brakes on the idea. They are worried it may further diminish their power and the regular appropriations process.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a push by some conservatives, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), to enact new tax cuts, or to extend the working-class Trump tax cuts that are due to soon expire.<\/p>\n
But that effort is meeting resistance from Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who is warning colleagues that could force Republicans to relitigate all of the tax cuts and spending cuts enacted in last year\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.<\/p>\n
As a result, GOP senators are growing increasingly pessimistic about achieving any partisan legislative accomplishments after they enact legislation to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol through 2029.<\/p>\n
Republican senators say there\u2019s growing opposition within their conference to attempting a third budget reconciliation bill, especially among members of the Senate Appropriations panel, who believe it\u2019s \u201cour job,\u201d in the words of one lawmaker, to pass funding for the Pentagon under regular order.<\/p>\n
Passing appropriations bills under regular order means getting Democrats to support a supplemental defense appropriations package or a beefed-up full-year Defense appropriations bill.<\/p>\n
Pessimism that their party will lose control of the House after this fall\u2019s elections is a big factor in the calculations, one senator acknowledged.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are some who are saying, \u2018Look, we know the House is going to flip and so this is basically our last opportunity to really do anything and so we\u2019ve got to go for the gold ring. We\u2019ve got to put everything that we want into a reconciliation bill because we\u2019re not going to be legislating anymore,\u2019\u201d said a GOP senator who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the debate within the Senate Republican conference over moving a third reconciliation package.<\/p>\n
But the lawmaker said there a group of GOP colleague who are pushing back on the arguments that Republicans need to rely on budget reconciliation to get defense funding and other legislative priorities around Democratic filibusters. <\/p>\n
\u201cI refuse to accept that,\u201d the senator said, pushing back on the claim that Republicans need to pass a third reconciliation package to fund military priorities or other GOP agenda items before the election.<\/p>\n
A second Republican senator confirmed \u201cthere is strong opposition\u201d to moving a third reconciliation within the Senate Republican conference, especially among appropriators who fear it would undermine efforts to work on a bipartisan basis to pass regular appropriations bills.<\/p>\n
The GOP senator argued that repeatedly relying on budget reconciliation to circumvent Democratic filibusters has undermined the Senate\u2019s tradition of working on a bipartisan basis to get things done.<\/p>\n
And while some Republicans are skeptical about working with Democrats on major legislation while Trump is president, others don\u2019t want to give up on bipartisanship just yet.<\/p>\n
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.) warned that repeated use of budget reconciliation to shut out the minority party weakens Senate tradition and could augur the end of the filibuster, which requires the parties to work together to pass legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe tend to evolve toward the most recent precedent and this use of reconciliation repeatedly to avoid a bipartisan compromise [that] moves us in the wrong direction,\u201d Durbin said.<\/p>\n
GOP senators say Thune promised colleagues that the leadership would be open to moving a third budget reconciliation package later this year as part of an effort to keep the pending reconciliation bill narrowly focused on funding ICE and Border Patrol.<\/p>\n
Some Republicans, notably Cruz, called for bulking up the package to include top Republican economic priorities that the party could highlight ahead of the midterm election.<\/p>\n
But Thune feared that expanding the scope of the reconciliation bill would delay its passage through Congress by weeks or months \u2014 something he didn\u2019t want to risk after House Republicans refused to approve a bill funding most of the Department of Homeland Security until they saw the Senate make significant progress toward passing a budget vehicle to fund immigration enforcement through 2029.<\/p>\n
But now that most of the Department of Homeland Security is funded through September and a budget reconciliation package funding ICE and Border Patrol has already been drafted in the Senate, there are growing questions over whether GOP leaders will attempt to move a third reconciliation package to pay for the military conflict with Iran or enact new tax cuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomebody started this stuff about there\u2019s going to be a third reconciliation bill and my response to that is: Dreamweaver. I don\u2019t know what year they\u2019re talking about but it\u2019s not happening before the midterm elections,\u201d Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said.<\/p>\n
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said he would love to pass a third reconciliation package to enact more of Trump\u2019s priorities, but he said it\u2019s \u201chard to see\u201d how it gets done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do want that and I\u2019d love to take it on. Right now, it\u2019s hard to see it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Asked about the appropriators\u2019 opposition to moving another reconciliation package, Cramer replied: \u201cI\u2019m sure that\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told The Hill that he\u2019s open to moving a third budget reconciliation package focused on defense spending but declined to say what else he\u2019d like to include.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll talk about it later,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But pulling together enough Republican votes to fund the ongoing military conflict with Iran, which polls show has little support from the American public, could be a heavy lift.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s like $200 billion more and all this stuff for the war supplemental, I\u2019m not going to\u201d support it, said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has voted repeatedly for resolutions under the 1973 War Powers Act to direct Trump to withdraw troops from hostilities with Iran.<\/p>\n
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