Senate Budget Chairman Lindsey Graham on Friday released a budget blueprint that sets spending limits for a border, defense and energy bill to follow.
The budget resolution, meant to serve as the opening salvo for enacting President Trump’s legislative agenda, calls for up to $345 billion in new spending over four years.
It instructs the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees in both chambers to provide $175 billion for border security and enforcement measures and the Armed Services committees to come up with $150 billion for defense. The Transportation committees would also be able to contribute up to $20 billion for border- and defense-related measures that fall under their jurisdiction, but the budget panel expects that total to come in at about $17 billion.
If the budget blueprint is approved, the details of that spending, as well as offsets, would be drafted in a follow-up budget reconciliation bill. Reconciliation is a process that lets Republicans avoid the threat of a Democratic filibuster in the Senate and pass their priorities along party lines.
“To those who voted for and support real border security and a stronger defense in a troubled world, help is on the way,” Mr. Graham, South Carolina Republican, said in a statement. “This budget resolution jump-starts 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.”
The Senate budget resolution is intended to set up the first of what senators prefer to be two budget reconciliation bills. The first would focus on immediate priorities of border, defense and energy security. The second would extend and expand the tax cuts enacted during Mr. Trump’s first term and cut spending across the federal government.
House Republicans are proceeding with their own budget blueprint that would combine all those priorities into one massive bill, but they have struggled to get on the same page, so the Senate moved on its alternative plan.
“The time to act is now, and Senate Republicans are ready to roll,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican.
Mr. Graham has set a two-day markup of his budget resolution beginning Wednesday. As of now, the Senate is ahead of the House, but GOP leaders in the lower chamber hope to release their budget blueprint next week and mark it up as soon as Tuesday.
The House and Senate eventually need to adopt the same budget resolution to unlock the reconciliation powers.
One of the major disagreements that needs to be resolved beyond one bill or two is how far to go in cutting spending.
Mr. Graham said his intention is for lawmakers to fully offset his $342 billion spending proposal with savings and revenue achieved over the same four years. But the instructions in the budget for Senate committees that would come up with those offsets sets a much more flexible floor of $5 billion in deficit reduction.
House Republicans have been arguing over their own deficit reduction floor, but it’s expected to exceed $1 trillion. Their tax cuts will cost at least five times that amount, but they’re considering using a budget assumption that excludes the cost of extending tax provisions already in law to help with the math.
The Senate budget resolution doesn’t specify where the spending should go or where the offsets should come from, but Mr. Graham outlined some of the likely categories.
The $175 billion in border funding is intended to pay for finishing construction of the southern border wall, upgrading technology for ground and aerial support, and increasing detention beds for immigrants who cross the border illegally and aren’t released before adjudication.
It would also fund an increase in border agents, immigration judges and U.S. attorneys and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrest and deport criminal migrants across the interior of the country. And some of the funding would go to state and local law enforcement to assist with immigration enforcement and removal efforts.
The $150 billion in defense funding is intended to maintain military readiness, including building an integrated air and missile defense system similar to Israel’s Iron Dome. The money will also help strengthen America’s nuclear defense and expand the Navy to restore U.S. maritime dominance.
Some of the budget savings are expected to come from energy provisions that facilitate on- and offshore lease sales to unleash domestic energy production.
Republicans also plan to repeal the Biden administration’s methane emissions fee.
The budget includes reconciliation instructions for the Senate Finance Committee to help find savings for deficit reduction, but not the House Ways and Means Committee, which takes tax increases off the table.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the finance panel, said that means Republicans are targeting cuts to Medicaid, which falls under his committee’s jurisdiction in the Senate but under the Energy and Commerce Committee’s jurisdiction in the House.
“The way this is written means only one thing: Republicans have their knives out for Americans’ health care,” Mr. Wyden said. “It’s been clear from the start that congressional Republicans plan to gut health care for working families to fund their ideological priorities. Democrats in the Senate will go to the mat to stop any cuts to Medicaid that will increase costs and take away health care from everyday Americans.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
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