Senate GOP unveils new budget blueprint and braces for another vote-a-rama

By Lauren Fox, CNN

(CNN) — Senate Republicans unveiled their new budget blueprint Wednesday afternoon, paving the way for the Senate and House to finally inch closer to advancing President Donald Trump’s immigration and tax agenda.

The blueprint is just the first step in a long and arduous process expected to take months, but if the Senate can advance the resolution in the next several days, it will unlock a chance for them to pass a massive tax, border and defense bill with just a simple majority in the chamber.

While the resolution moves closer to a House version that passed in February, it includes significant differences.

For one, the blueprint calls on the Senate to make just a fraction of the spending cuts that the House instructions call for. The House resolution calls for at least $1.5 trillion in cuts. The Senate’s version, meanwhile, calls for $4 billion in cuts – although senators argue they set a lower marker to allow for maximum flexibility under strict Senate rules that govern the process.

Some House conservatives, however, see that departure as a glaring difference, worrying their Senate colleagues may not be as committed as they are to steep spending cuts.

What happens next?

In the next several days, the Senate is expected to undertake the procedural speedbump known as a budget “vote-a-rama.” The process will allow Democrats and Republicans alike to force a series of politically tough votes for hours on the Senate floor. That process is expected to start as soon as Friday.

At the end of that process, the Senate will only need a simple majority to advance their budget blue print. Then, it will be up to the House to pass the new version.

The race to get the votes

The challenge in the next 48 hours will be for Senate Majority Leader John Thune to lock up the votes.

The resolution contains several pieces that could be difficult for conservatives in his conference to swallow, including that the resolution includes a two-year hike of the debt ceiling, something that a handful of Republican senators don’t typically vote for.

The House and Senate bills differ in how they approach the debt ceiling. The House allows an increase of $4 trillion while the Senate’s outline raises the debt ceiling to $5 trillion.

The other challenge will be whether the bill makes substantial enough cuts to satisfy the right flank of Thune’s party. But, it’s a delicate balance for the Republican leader. While conservatives are demanding steep cuts and real reforms to the country’s spending practices, several Republicans who hail from states highly dependent on programs like Medicaid have warned they won’t accept massive slashes to that program that could negatively impact their constituents.

In a private meeting at the White House Wednesday, Trump made assurances to members of the Senate Budget Committee that he would work to shore up the votes especially in the House for their resolution.

“The Senate Plan has my Complete and Total Support. Likewise, the House is working along the same lines. Every Republican, House and Senate, must UNIFY. We need to pass it IMMEDIATELY!” the president wrote on his Truth Social platform Wednesday, backing the measure.

Once the Senate passes its proposal, the House will have to take it up for a vote.

One closely watched senator, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, indicated he’d back the budget resolution after the meeting with Trump.

“I was pleased with the commitment we got from the president at the White House today,” he said. “His commitment to really focusing on returning us to a reasonable pre-pandemic level and a process to achieve it.”

The Senate’s budget resolution will punt many of those harder conversations down the road when lawmakers will have to decide what programs to cut – and by how much – in the tax, border and savings legislation.

Trepidation from the House

After the Senate advances the resolution, the House will need to take up the updated version and House Speaker Mike Johnson has little room for error.

Even before the Senate rolled out its budget blueprint, Republicans expressed concerns that this resolution gave very different instructions in terms of meeting savings targets. The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Brett Guthrie, told CNN on Tuesday he wished that the House and Senate could sing from the same hymnal.

“Where I wish we were is that we had an agreed upon number,” Guthrie said. “We really need to know we are on the same sheet of music.”

Guthrie’s committee would have broad jurisdiction to make cuts to programs like Medicaid and one of the concerns from moderates or swing district Republicans is that if they take a tough vote to reform the popular program, they want to know the Senate is going to be with them and not leaving them bearing the brunt of a political consequence for something that doesn’t become law.

Rep. Tom Cole, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, also argued the Senate needed to “put up or shut up” on spending cuts. Although, he noted he’d vote for a budget resolution that gave different instructions to the Senate than it did the House.

“We had a chance to repeal Obamacare and it was the United States Senate that couldn’t come up with the votes last time. This is a chance to finally do something on at least one of the mandatory programs,” Cole said. “It’s time to put up or shut up if you are serious about sending.”

CNN’s Morgan Rimmer, Manu Raju and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

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