Senate Republicans’ work to resolve differences with the House on a budget blueprint will slip until late March at least, with the chamber not expected to bring up the resolution before lawmakers leave for a recess at the end of next week.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune made clear in a brief interview on Monday night that he did not intend to put the House budget resolution on the floor before the Senate’s expected mid-March break that will start after March 14 — the same day as the deadline to avoid a government shutdown.
He also declined to commit to scheduling a vote on the House-adopted resolution when senators return a week later, as the clock ticks down on congressional Republicans’ ability to adhere to an ambitious timeline to enact President Donald Trump’s vast domestic policy agenda.
“We’re having those conversations with our members,” Thune said. “How we go about processing the House budget resolution is still an open question. But we know that in the end we’ve got to come up with something that can pass — get 51 in the Senate and 218 in the House.”
The House adopted its budget resolution last week that would allow Republicans to write “one big beautiful bill” through the party-line budget reconciliation process, tying together border, energy and defense policy with an overhaul of the tax code.
Senate Republicans adopted a budget reflecting their desired, two-bill strategy, which would have put the tax changes in a separate bill later this year. They are now switching to the one-bill track, but not before they address necessary changes to the House product to pass muster with their members.
The Senate Finance Committee, Thune noted, has quietly been socializing ideas with Senate Republicans on the tax piece and Senate Republicans are expected to talk about the House budget during their own closed-door lunches this week. It will mark the first chance leadership will have to take the temperature of the whole group at once.
Senate GOP leadership staff also briefed senior Senate Republican staffers during a meeting on Monday, indicating that they were still in the very early stages of ironing out a deal on the House budget resolution. Senate Republicans hold multiple staff meetings, which are run by leadership offices, at the start of every week.
While Senate Republicans grapple privately with the House budget resolution, Senate Republicans are expected to focus floor activity next week on a much closer deadline: funding the government.
