Battle of the chambers: House and Senate tensions boil over as Trump budget hangs in limbo
Republicans in the Senate aren't necessarily being swayed by a new push from House GOP leaders to take up their preferred budget bill for President Donald Trump.
House Republicans have reportedly been concerned by the Senate's lack of action on their budget bill passed weeks ago, addressing key Trump priorities such as the border and tax cuts.
In response to suggestions that the Senate isn’t moving fast enough to get Trump's budget bill done, a Senate GOP aide pointed Fox News Digital to the fact that the upper chamber just ended what was the longest work period in over 15 years.
The Senate aide noted that members and their staff have been "actively engaged in substantive discussions" regarding the key budget reconciliation process for months. Even over the week-long recess, staff engagement has been "virtually non-stop," they said.
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The budget reconciliation process lowers the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to 51 out of 100, allowing the party in power to skirt its opposition to advance its agenda, so long as the included provisions relate to budgetary and other fiscal matters. The House of Representatives already has a simple majority threshold.
The process is crucial for Republicans, who have a trifecta in Washington, to get certain Trump agenda items accomplished.
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The Senate GOP aide noted that the Senate managed to pass its preferred reconciliation bill as part of a two-track plan – before the House passed an alternate version.
Early Monday morning, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and Chairwoman Lisa McClain, R-Mich., released a joint statement alongside 12 chairs of committees with jurisdiction in the budget reconciliation process.
"We took the first step to accomplish that by passing a budget resolution weeks ago, and we look forward to the Senate joining us in this commitment to ensure we enact President Trump’s full agenda as quickly as possible," they said. "The American people gave us a mandate, and we must act on it. We encourage our Senate colleagues to take up the House budget resolution when they return to Washington."
The Senate aide reiterated that Senate Republicans have zeroed in on certain "consequential issues" in the budget reconciliation process, of which the details have to be exact before moving forward.
The tax portion, which has been the area of contention between House and Senate Republicans, is expected to get consideration during the new work period, the aide said.
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Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who has been generally opposed to the House's one-bill reconciliation approach, also pushed back on their statement. "Until we seriously address out-of-control spending and create an effective process to return to a reasonable pre-pandemic level, I will not support another budget resolution," he told Fox News Digital in a statement. "Unfortunately, the House Budget Resolution does not do that."
Just before the brief legislative recess, Senate Finance Committee Republicans met with Trump at the White House to discuss the at-issue tax portion of his agenda and its reconciliation hopes.
Trump has in recent weeks backed off from taking explicit sides in the reconciliation fight between the GOP chambers, despite initially supporting the House's plan.
At the center of the tax-cut controversy are Senate Republicans' claims that the House's bill would not make Trump's tax policies from 2017 permanent, and House GOP complaints that multiple reconciliation bills would be difficult to pass, given tight party margins.
Senate Republicans did not include an extension of the tax cuts in their passed bill, preferring to do a separate reconciliation bill in the fall. Their bill instead focused on Trump's border priorities. The House's measure tackled both in one bill.
The House-passed bill has yet to be brought up in the Senate.