U.S. South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks during a press conference on the border on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023. Also pictured, left to right, are Sens. John Thune of South Dakota, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, John Cornyn of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas.  (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham on Friday released the text of the budget resolution that will lay the groundwork for Republicans in Congress to overhaul border security, boost defense funding and address energy extraction — if the two chambers can broker a deal.

The South Carolina Republican announced earlier this week he would move ahead with the first steps in the Senate amid an ongoing stalemate in the House GOP over both process and policy.

House Republicans gathered at the White House for hours Thursday, searching for a way to unite over campaign promises they hope to pass in one large package, though Graham’s budget moves forward with a two-package plan. 

Graham’s decision to jump ahead of the House appeared to spur some motivation in that chamber, though the House has yet to release a budget resolution or announce consensus between the centrist and far-right members within its conference.

“To those who voted for and support real border security and a stronger defense in a troubled world, help is on the way,” Graham wrote in a statement. “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.”

Committee to meet next week

The Senate Budget Committee plans to mark up the 61-page budget resolution on Wednesday and Thursday. After that, it will likely go to the Senate floor for debate and a marathon all-night amendment voting session, and then head to the House.

The House and Senate must agree on a budget resolution before they can officially begin the reconciliation process, which allows lawmakers to pass legislation in the Senate without having to go through procedural votes that require the support of at least 60 senators. That means the legislation would not need the support of Democrats in the chamber controlled by Republicans 53-47.

The two chambers adopting separate budget resolutions would not meet the requirements, though they could go to conference to sort out their disagreements before holding floor votes again in each chamber on one final budget resolution.

The Senate budget resolution would provide reconciliation instructions to the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Armed Services; Commerce, Science and Transportation; Energy and Natural Resources; Environment and Public Works; Finance; Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; and Judiciary committees.

Where savings in spending would be made

The reconciliation instructions don’t provide much insight into how exactly each committee will draft its section of the reconciliation package, but the instructions do begin to clarify how much each committee will have to spend on its bill or to find in savings to help pay for the overall cost.

For example, the Senate Armed Services Committee is told to draft its piece of the package in a way that doesn’t increase the deficit by more than $150 billion, so that committee’s bill will likely cost about that much.

The Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP, Committee appears to be one of the committees expected to provide some savings, since its reconciliation instructions call on the panel to reduce the deficit by at least $1 billion. That committee, led by Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, has a large jurisdiction including the Department of Health and Human Services and its programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.

The committees that will be able to spend money in the reconciliation package include Commerce, Science and Transportation with a price tag of $20 billion; Environment and Public Works with a topline of $1 billion; Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs with a funding level of $175 billion; and Judiciary with a spending allocation of $175 billion. 

The Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee is charged with finding at least $1 billion in savings; Energy and Natural Resources must draft a bill saving at least $1 billion; and Finance is asked to provide another $1 billion or more in cost-cutting. Finance, which is led by GOP Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, also holds jurisdiction over the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Those committees must draft and vote to send their pieces of the reconciliation package to the Senate Budget Committee before March 7.

Two-step approach

The instructions indicate Graham is moving forward with the two-step approach to reconciliation that Senate Republicans and even many House GOP lawmakers have been pushing for.

Their proposal for two packages — the first focused on border security, defense spending and energy policy and a second focused on taxes — is in contrast to Speaker Mike Johnson’s wishes.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, wants Congress to pass all of the GOP’s policy changes in one package.

An inability to agree on process would block any path forward for the policy changes, unless GOP leaders were to negotiate with Democrats. 

The U.S. Capitol covered in snow on Jan. 6, 2025. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Budget Committee plans to mark up a budget resolution next week, starting off the long and likely arduous reconciliation process the GOP hopes it can use to pass sweeping changes to border security and immigration policy.

Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, announced the markup on Wednesday, moving ahead of the House, which had hoped to move a budget resolution through committee this week.

“To those who believe that Republicans should fulfill their promises on border security, mass deportation of criminal illegal aliens: I agree,” Graham wrote in a statement.

“That is why the Senate Budget Committee will be moving forward next week to give the Trump Administration’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, the money he needs to finish the wall, hire ICE agents to deport criminal illegal immigrants, and create more detention beds so that we do not release more dangerous people into the country.”

Graham said the reconciliation bill “will be the most transformational border security bill in the history of our country.”

Budget blueprint

Congress’ budget resolution is a tax and spending blueprint that lays out lawmakers’ vision for the 10-year budget window. It doesn’t contain any actual federal spending.

The House and Senate must agree to adopt the same budget resolution before Congress formally unlocks the reconciliation process that will enable Republicans to enact their policies without Democratic support.

While the GOP controls both chambers of Congress, Senate rules require at least 60 lawmakers vote to limit debate on major bills. Republicans hold 53 seats at the moment, shy of the supermajority needed to move legislation through the regular process without Democratic buy-in.

The reconciliation process, which has strict rules in the Senate, allows the GOP to get around that 60-vote requirement as long as the various elements of the package address revenue or spending in a manner not deemed “merely incidental” by the Senate parliamentarian. Reconciliation bills also cannot change Social Security.

One bill or two?

Senate Republicans moving first on a budget resolution doesn’t guarantee the House will vote to adopt the same budget resolution, especially if it only contains reconciliation instructions to address border security and immigration policy.

House GOP leaders have pressed for months for Congress to move all of their policy goals, including those addressing tax and energy, through one reconciliation package.

Senate Republicans, including Graham, have said the party should write two separate reconciliation packages with the first focused on border security and the second addressing taxes.

While the House and Senate don’t need to work out all the policy details of the eventual reconciliation package in the budget resolution, they must agree which committees will get reconciliation instructions and what those instructions will say.

Vote-a-rama looms

Once the Senate Budget Committee votes its budget resolution to the Senate floor, GOP leaders will need to dedicate floor time to debating the resolution. But before the upper chamber can take a final vote on the budget resolution, senators will need to undertake the vote-a-rama; typically an all night marathon session, where senators from both parties put up dozens of amendments to the budget resolution.

Democrats will use the process to put senators facing challenging reelection prospects in 2026 on the record on policies that could cause them issues, either during a primary or a general election.

After that, the Senate’s budget resolution would go to the House, where GOP leaders could choose to adopt it, or to make changes, which would require it go back to the Senate

The House could also bring its own budget resolution up in its Budget Committee, bring that through the floor and then go to conference with the Senate.

That’s all before the House and Senate begin to debate the actual reconciliation bill with the actual policy changes in committees and on the floor.

Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said last month he hopes the entire process will be wrapped up before the end of May.

House GOP leaders have an especially narrow margin to work within, holding just 218 seats at the moment, compared to Democrat’s 215 members. There are currently two vacancies that will be filled by special elections later this year.