Senate adopts budget resolution paving the way for border, defense funding bill

The Senate adopted a budget resolution that outlines parameters to fund border security, immigration enforcement and defense needs, offering an alternative strategy to enacting President Trump’s agenda than one that he and House Republicans are pushing.

The budget was adopted Friday on a 52-48 vote, with Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, joining all Democrats in opposition. The House is scheduled in the coming week to take up its dueling budget resolution, which outlines a plan for national security funding similar to the Senate proposal but also adds instructions for sweeping tax and spending cuts.

Mr. Trump has said he prefers the House plan.

Senate Republicans acknowledged their budget is a backup plan. Yet, they were so determined to approve it that they powered through a nearly 10-hour marathon voting session known as a “vote-a-rama,” in which senators could offer unlimited amendments.

The vast majority of amendments came from Democrats seeking to attack GOP priorities, including ones not outlined in the underlying budget reconciliation instructions.

Those instructions call for up to $345 billion in funding for border security, immigration enforcement and the national defense and offsetting spending cuts that would be packaged together in a subsequent budget reconciliation package.

The reconciliation process allows Republicans to avoid the threat of a Democratic filibuster and pass their priorities on a simple majority vote.

Democrats said Republicans are slashing spending on health care, education and other programs low- and middle-income Americans rely on to subsidize tax cuts for the wealthy.

“Republicans’ North Star is singular, unchanging: They’re trying to give their billionaire buddies a tax break and have you, the American people, American families, pay the cost,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat.

Sen. Susan M. Collins, a Maine Republican who is up for reelection in 2026, broke with her party and voted for failed Democratic amendments that sought to prevent tax cuts for billionaires.

But despite the Democrats’ relentless messaging, the Senate budget does not include instructions for legislation to cut taxes.

Republicans in the upper chamber prefer to save that for a second reconciliation effort, despite the House GOP proceeding with a separate budget plan that would package the national security funding and tax cuts together, along with sweeping spending cuts and a debt-limit increase.

Mr. Trump has not stood in the way of the Senate advancing its budget.

While Senate Republicans were mostly unified around their budget, many are noncommittal as to whether the party advances Mr. Trump’s priorities in one reconciliation bill or two. Mr. Paul was the only Republican to vote against the budget, saying it lacked a plan to cut spending amid rising deficits.

The budget resolution provides instructions for committees to find at least $5 billion in savings, although Senate GOP leaders say they intend to find enough to offset the $342 billion in new spending they anticipate authorizing.

“None of that is listed in the budget,” Mr. Paul said of the promised offsets.

He offered an amendment to readjust the spending-cut floor to $1.5 trillion, the same as laid out in the House budget resolution. It failed 24-76, with 29 Republicans joining all Democrats in opposition.

Senate Republicans have said they do not plan to dip into Medicaid in search of offsets for the national security funding, but House Republicans’ plan anticipates finding savings from the government health insurance program for low-income families.

Democrats offered several amendments seeking to block cuts to Medicaid, earning support from Ms. Collins and Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, on some but still falling short of a majority.

Before those votes, Sen. Dan Sullivan, an Alaska Republican who is up for reelection in 2026, offered an amendment that promised to strengthen Medicaid and Medicare for the most vulnerable that provided some cover for his party for the votes that followed.

“I know my Democratic colleagues are going to try tonight to use scare tactics to message that Republicans don’t support these vital programs, but we do,” Mr. Sullivan said. “Heck, President Trump has repeatedly said that these programs are not going to be touched. People rely on Medicare and Medicaid … and we are here to strongly support them.”

Democrats said the proposal to protect the most vulnerable from Medicaid and Medicare cuts would leave millions of Americans behind.

“The language in this amendment is code for kicking Americans with Medicaid coverage off their health insurance if they’re not sick enough, not poor enough or not disabled enough,” said Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden, Oregon Democrat.

Mr. Sullivan’s amendment was adopted 51-49, with Utah GOP Sens. John Curtis and Mike Lee voting with Democrats in opposition.

The only other amendment offered by a Republican was one from Mr. Lee expressing support for legislation known as the REINS Act to prevent federal agencies from finalizing major regulations without congressional approval. It was adopted along party lines.

Mr. Paul said his colleagues talk a big game about being fiscally conservative and backing the effort from Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to slash spending across the federal government, but have yet to show they are willing to back that up with codifying legislation.

“Ultimately, all the talk of the savings is ephemeral,” he said. “It isn’t real until Congress has the courage to vote on it.”

Democrats offered some amendments targeting actions DOGE has taken and seeking to prevent future cuts it may pursue. Those amendments were all rejected, but Democrats peeled off some GOP votes on a few.

Mr. Sullivan supported an amendment to reinstate employees fired from the Forest Service, National Park Service, United States Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management.

He and Ms. Collins backed an amendment to prevent cuts to school lunch or school breakfast programs.

Mr. Hawley voted for an amendment to prevent any cuts or delays in funding Congress appropriated for health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxins from burn bits. And he and Mr. Sullivan supported an amendment related to ending price gouging on prescription drugs.

While most of Democrats’ amendments will be used for political messaging purposes, some were more obvious attempts at forming campaign ads than others.

Those included amendments to support police and protect access to fertility treatments like in vitro fertilization. Mr. Sullivan voted for the former, while Ms. Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Alaska Republican, backed the latter.

Several other Democratic amendments, including ones related to housing and energy prices and preventing cuts to food assistance programs, were all rejected along party lines.

Republicans also stood united in opposition to an amendment from Senate Armed Services ranking member Jack Reed, Rhode Island Democrat, that sought to affirm U.S. support to Ukraine, arguing the budget resolution was not the place for that debate.