The Senate and House of Representatives are working on parallel budget resolutions with different provisions. Neither body appears ready to compromise.
WASHINGTON—House and Senate Republicans have initiated dueling plans to implement President Donald Trump’s campaign promises, and it is unclear which strategy will prevail.
The word “reconciliation” has dominated the agenda on Capitol Hill since the beginning of the year. It refers to the “budget reconciliation” process, which is a special procedure that Republicans want to use to fund the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement and border wall construction, as well as extend certain tax cuts.
Unlike the normal process of passing a bill, reconciliation bypasses the Senate “filibuster” process, meaning that only a simple majority is required for passage in the upper chamber.
Reconciliation requires both the Senate and House of Representatives to concurrently pass a “budget resolution” for the fiscal year, which would instruct other committees to recommend new spending, as well as cuts, for the final bill.
As usual, the resolution approved by both houses must be completely identical. Any disagreement between them on the substance would break down the process.
Currently, such disagreement is the case. Whereas the Senate seeks to pass two reconciliation bills for this fiscal year, Republicans in the House want only one bill.
Each position reflects the politics of that house—in the Senate, Republicans believe that passing two bills would allow less controversial issues of border security to be addressed first, while more difficult questions of taxation and the sovereign debt limit could be addressed later.
By contrast, in the House, disagreements within the Republican conference—between fiscal conservatives and everyone else—have led Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to opine that they can maintain a coalition only for the passage of one bill.
“Nothing would please me more than one, big, beautiful bill. … That is my preference. Now, what guides my thinking is the problem we have now: We’re running out of money,” Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is sponsoring the budget resolution in that body, said at a news conference on Feb. 11.
By Arjun Singh
