The proposed budget resolution would unlock reconciliation for war funding, agricultural aid and election incentives, but GOP divisions over spending and the debt limit continue to block passage before the August recess.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday that Republicans do not currently have the 50 votes needed to advance President Donald Trump’s preferred budget resolution, leaving the administration’s emergency spending package stalled as the Senate approaches its five-week August recess.
“Right now, we don’t have 50,” Thune, R-S.D., said.
The House-approved framework would begin the budget reconciliation process, allowing Republicans to move legislation through the Senate without needing Democratic support to overcome a filibuster, according to The Hill. The package under discussion includes $73 billion for the war effort involving Iran, $12 billion in assistance for farmers and $10 billion in incentives for states that change their election procedures.
Trump has urged Senate Republicans to adopt the resolution before leaving Washington for the August recess, describing passage of the budget framework as an essential first step toward securing the broader package.
“Senator Ron Johnson is working hard with Senate Republican Leadership to adopt a Budget Resolution before the August recess,” Trump wrote Tuesday on Truth Social, referring to Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee.
“I am calling on the Senate to get this critical first step done before the August recess,” Trump added.
The president has also pressed lawmakers to attach a provision increasing the federal debt limit through the end of his term. Thune said that demand has made the legislation more difficult to assemble because fiscal conservatives in both the House and Senate are expected to insist on spending reductions in exchange for supporting additional federal borrowing authority.
The disagreement has added to tension between Trump and the Senate Republican Conference. During a rally in Georgia last week, Trump criticized the chamber as “a place you send things when you want them to die,” while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president’s “patience is running out” with senators.
Thune said the administration has also attempted to persuade Republican lawmakers to support eliminating the legislative filibuster and ending the Senate’s judicial blue-slip practice. Trump and members of his team previously met with approximately 20 Republican senators to discuss those changes, but roughly 15 opposed them.
“If he can change the facts and start moving some of those senators who are nos into yeses, then we have a different conversation,” Thune said.
Republican divisions have already surfaced over portions of the administration’s election agenda. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky voted in June against Trump’s preferred version of the SAVE America Act when it was offered as a budget reconciliation amendment.
The proposal also lacks enough Democratic support to reach the 60-vote threshold that would be required if Republicans attempted to move it through the Senate outside reconciliation.
With the votes still unresolved, some Republican senators are resisting calls to cancel or shorten the August recess. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said lawmakers need the break to campaign and meet with voters in their states.
“If we had the votes, it would make a lot more sense” to cancel the recess, Capito said.
The impasse leaves Republican leaders with little time to reconcile competing demands over military spending, farm assistance, election policy, spending reductions and the debt ceiling. Unless Thune can persuade additional members to support the framework, the Senate is unlikely to advance the resolution before lawmakers leave Washington.
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