Border security, defense: Senate digs into Trump agenda in marathon session
WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans advanced their version of President Donald Trump's agenda in a marathon session that ran into into early Friday morning − a border security and defense package that will likely become a "Plan B" for the narrowly-divided Congress.
Senate Democrats forced Republicans to vote on −and defeat − dozens of add-ons designed to put them in uncomfortable positions with voters, such as an amendment to prevent tax cuts for people earning more than $1 billion, even though the bill does not include tax policy, or to reject controversial moves by Trump or Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
The framework passed around 5:00 a.m. with 52-48 support mostly along party lines. Only GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky voted with Democrats against it, citing increased federal spending.
The framework would allow Congress to spend around $340 billion, including at $175 billion for border security and $150 billion for defense. If House Republicans adopt the same plan, it would start the first phase of passing Trump's priorities, with a separate tax bill to come later.
But this blueprint is likely to become a backup plan for the House version, which is significantly larger and would include Trump's sweeping tax proposals – and would likely necessitate big cuts to Medicaid and food programs for low-income Americans.
"To my House colleagues: We will all get there together," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who spearheaded the proposal as chair of the Budget Committee. But he added a dig at the House version, which he has suggested doesn't fully meet Trump's goals.
"If you can pass the one big, beautiful bill that makes the tax cuts permanent, not four or five years, then we'll all cheer over here," Graham said. "Nothing would please me more than Speaker Johnson being able to put together the bill that President Trump wants."
Democrats play their hand
As the minority party in both houses of Congress, Democrats have little power to derail Trump's agenda on Capitol Hill.
But they used what juice they did have Thursday night by pushing their GOP colleagues into voting on amendments Democrats hope will become future campaign fodder.
For example, the Senate rejected an amendment from Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., to require insurers to cover in vitro fertilization after Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to find ways to reduce the cost of the procedure. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., called it "a Trojan horse."
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., offered an amendment to bar DOGE from accessing Americans' private information in government databases. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., proposed the federal government re-hire employees fired from the National Park Service, the Forest Service and similar agencies. And Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., proposed an amendment to support Ukraine as it battles Russia. All were defeated.
Medicaid cuts could divide Republicans
But Democrats did get some Republican support. Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Josh Hawley, R-Mo., supported the amendment to bar tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy if there are Medicaid cuts. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, supported the return of National Park Service employees, and Collins and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, supported an amendment to protect funding for school lunches and breakfasts.
One of the few amendments that succeeded was one from Sullivan, which aimed to show Republican support for Medicare and Medicaid.
"Tonight, one amendment at a time, Democrats exposed Republicans’ true colors here on the Senate floor," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday morning.
Bigger, better? Trump endorses House plan
For weeks, the House and the Senate have debated opposing strategies for Trump's agenda. The Senate's version would break it up into two pieces for the sake of speed, and the House's version would wrap it into one massive package in the hopes of squeezing it through their narrow Republican majority.
In the House, Republicans' five-person majority is already one of the smallest margins of power in modern history. But for the next few months, they will be dealing with only a two- or three-person majority as they fill seats of members who retired or joined the Trump administration.
The slim margin gives GOP holdouts power to cause major disruptions.
Senators raced ahead of the House as the lower chamber debated how to keep everyone from fiscal conservatives in the Freedom Caucus to moderates from swing districts happy.
Last week, House Republicans advanced in committee a package that would implement around $4.5 trillion in tax cuts offset by $2 trillion in spending reductions − in part from cutting health care and food aid for low-income Americans. The House package would raise the debt ceiling by $4 trillion over two years, put tens of billions of dollars into border security and defense − and add trillions to the federal deficit over 10 years.
The bill garnered the support of the House Freedom Caucus, but set up a potential showdown with moderates concerned about cuts to Medicaid, which provides health coverage to 72 million low-income people.
On Wednesday, as GOP senators prepared to meet with Vice President JD Vance to discuss the path forward for Trump's agenda, the president finally made it clear which side he supports by calling on both chambers to pass the House version.
Grumbles in the Senate
"The House and Senate are doing a SPECTACULAR job of working together as one unified, and unbeatable, TEAM," he wrote in a post on Truth Social. "However, unlike the Lindsey Graham version of the very important Legislation currently being discussed, the House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it!"
That prompted some grumbling from GOP senators questioning why they were forging ahead with a plan that's not Trump's preference. Hawley told Politico that Trump felt the same way.
Asked why the Senate was moving ahead on a plan Trump hasn't championed, Hawley said: “Great question. That's sort of what he said to me.”