WASHINGTON — The Senate passed its slimmed-down budget reconciliation package early Friday morning, approving hundreds of billions of dollars to go toward the southern border and national defense in a bill that could be dead on arrival in the House.
The Senate narrowly approved the spending bill in a 52-48 vote that was largely split along party lines. The package passed after roughly 12 hours of overnight debate on the Senate floor as Democrats sought to drag out the process as long as possible and force their GOP counterparts into some difficult votes.
By using the budget reconciliation process, Republicans only needed a simple majority vote to advance the package, allowing them to circumvent a filibuster imposed by their Democratic colleagues.
The legislation comes as the Republican Party looks for the most effective way to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, with Senate leaders arguing they should pass a smaller reconciliation bill dealing only with border and energy and save the more complicated policies on tax reform for later.
The bill is now poised to be sent to the House for consideration — but GOP leaders have not committed to considering it on the floor.
Senate package survives Trump 11th-hour surprise
Senate Republicans managed to advance their package even after Trump surprised party leaders on Wednesday when he threw his support behind the competing House reconciliation strategy.
The president praised both chambers for “working together as one unified, and unbeatable, TEAM,” but expressed his desire to advance his full agenda in one fell swoop.
“The House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it!” Trump wrote. “We need both Chambers to pass the House Budget to ‘kickstart’ the Reconciliation process, and move all of our priorities to the concept of, ‘ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL.’ It will, without question, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
It’s a debate that has plagued Republican lawmakers for months. Senate Republicans and some hardliners in the House, including those in the conservative House Freedom Caucus, pushed for the two-bill strategy, arguing the party should secure quick wins for Trump and provide much-needed money to the southern border.
But the confusion on Trump’s stance — which was made murkier when Vice President JD Vance told senators on Wednesday to “do whatever you want” and that Trump is “going to support it,” according to Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D. — prompted some Republicans to reconsider their position before it was brought to the floor on Thursday.
Ultimately, nearly all Republicans backed the package — all except Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
Republicans vote against amendments, giving Democrats future ammo
As part of the reconciliation process, lawmakers are permitted to introduce an unlimited number of amendments, with each one being granted a minute of debate divided by each side. Senators then have 10 minutes to vote on each amendment.
The process gave Democrats an opportunity to introduce 25 amendments, all of which were shot down by their Republican colleagues and were not included in the final package. But the “no” votes could come back to haunt Republicans, as Democrats are sure to use some proposals as campaign fodder to attack any senators seeking reelection in 2026.
For example, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., proposed an amendment to ensure the right to fertility care and require insurance companies to cover in vitro fertilization, or IVF. However, some Republicans such as Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., decried the proposal as a “Trojan horse” and the measure was rejected in a 51-49 vote.
Other rejected amendments include one proposal that would prevent tax cuts for the wealthy as well as another that would block tax cuts specifically if Medicaid funding was slashed.
Ultimately, only two amendments were adopted into the proposal, including a Republican-backed measure to create “a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to protecting Medicare and Medicaid.”
Meanwhile, in the House …
Even after the grueling marathon voting session, it’s unclear if the package will ever see the light of day.
The House is poised to move forward with its own budget reconciliation bill that includes all of Trump’s agenda priorities on border, energy, national defense and tax reform in one go. The House Rules Committee has scheduled the $4.5 trillion package to be considered on Monday, teeing it up for a full vote sometime next week.
The House effort has taken weeks to finalize, and it still faces some hurdles before it can be brought to the floor for a vote. Because of Republicans’ slim majority, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., can only afford to lose one GOP lawmaker’s support — giving him virtually no room for error.
In the meantime, House leaders will work to win over key holdouts to ensure its success next week, according to a GOP leadership source.