Senate Budget Committee Republicans said after a Wednesday meeting with President Trump that they are confident about the path forward for enacting his agenda and his commitment to deep spending cuts.
They met at the White House shortly before Senate Republicans released modifications to a House budget blueprint outlining goals for a budget reconciliation package that will carry the bulk of the president’s legislative agenda. The Senate is targeting a vote this week.
Mr. Trump “is fully on board with the Senate’s proposal and process to cut spending,” said Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican.
House Republicans have questioned the Senate’s commitment to spending cuts because they are eying a lower spending cut floor in the budget blueprint.
Senate Republicans say that’s only about complying with their strict rules for the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process. They say they are committed to finding massive savings for the final bill, including tax cuts and new funding for border security, immigration enforcement and defense.
Mr. Trump told senators he would emphasize the spending reduction portion of their legislative goals, starting with remarks Wednesday afternoon during his tariffs announcement. The president spoke generally about Republicans’ “phenomenal” bill and briefly nodded to the requested topic.
“We’re going to cut spending and rightsize the budget back to where it should be,” he said. “We’re going to include that very strongly.”
After meeting with the president, Senate fiscal hawks who had expressed reservations about whether the plan would lead to enough spending reductions sounded more on board.
“I believe we’re going to have something that everybody can vote for,” said Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican, noting that the president shares his desire to get spending under control.
Sen. Mike Lee, Utah Republican, stopped short of saying he was ready to vote for the budget blueprint but said, “We’re making progress, and I think we’re optimistic.”
The Budget Committee instructed House panels to collectively find a minimum of $1.5 trillion in spending cuts. The Senate keeps those instructions but gives its committees a much lower floor of $4 billion. All the spending targets are measured over 10 years.
Where the instructions differ, the Senate’s are what matters regarding compliance with the reconciliation rules. The House can adjust its targets without jeopardizing the filibuster-proof process.
The Senate adds a nonbinding goal of cutting more than $2 trillion, similar to the House, but says those savings can come through various means: mandatory spending cuts allowed in the reconciliation bill, executive actions from the president and the filibuster-proof rescissions process that can be used to cut discretionary spending.
It’s unclear whether that will be enough for House fiscal hawks. The Senate is pushing to raise the debt limit by $5 trillion instead of the $4 trillion the House proposed. Senate Republicans say the higher increase is needed to last through the 2026 elections.
To assuage senators’ concerns about where spending could be cut, the budget includes language promising “to protect the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance benefits” in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Still, it says that protection includes “waste, fraud, and abuse,” which Republicans say will reap lower Medicaid spending.
The most significant difference between the two chambers’ instructions is the approach to tax cuts. The House set a $4.5 trillion ceiling for the combined cost of extending Mr. Trump’s first-term tax cuts, which expire this year, and any tax cuts they want to add.
The Senate’s ceiling is $1.5 trillion, but it accounts only for the cost of new tax cuts. The budget changes call for a “current policy” baseline to eliminate the cost of extending any tax cuts already in law. Republicans say this will allow them to make tax relief from the 2017 law permanent.
The Senate instructions also include some differences on funding increases, namely allowing up to $150 billion for defense needs, compared with the $100 billion ceiling in the House instructions.
The instructions to committees with jurisdiction over border security and immigration enforcement vary between the House and Senate, but both target roughly $200 billion in new funding.
Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican, predicted that Senate and House Republicans would hash out their differences on the budget but called that a “baby step” before the real work begins.
Ultimately, he said, Mr. Trump would have to “be the final arbiter on what’s in and what’s out, and then he’s going to have to pull up to put his full weight behind the measure.”
Correction: This article was updated to reflect that the collective Senate floor spending cut is $4 billion, not $5 billion.
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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