The Senate will proceed with its own plan, Majority Leader John Thune said, continuing to cast doubt on the House’s ability to pass Trump’s agenda in one big bill
WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leaders said Wednesday they plan to move forward with a vote this week on their budget resolution, despite President Donald Trump’s emphatic endorsement hours earlier of the House’s competing version to pass his party-line agenda in one massive bill.
Trump’s remarks on Truth Social came just a day after the Senate began to advance a budget that would kick-start the process of pushing Trump’s policy priorities. The Senate’s blueprint is much narrower than the House’s; it focuses on immigration enforcement and expanding energy production but doesn’t call for an extension of the Trump tax cuts, like the House’s does.
And after a closed-door lunch between Vice President JD Vance and Senate Republicans on Wednesday, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the Senate would plow ahead with a vote on its budget resolution. He said he doubts that the slim House GOP majority can produce one big bill.
Trump has “made it clear for a long time that he would prefer ‘one big, beautiful bill,’ and we’re fine with that, too. If the House can produce one big, beautiful bill, we’re prepared to work with them to get that across the finish line,” Thune said.
“But we believe that the president also likes optionality, and the legislation that will be working and voting on tomorrow addresses” his priorities on immigration, military spending and energy, Thune added.
In his post, Trump specifically took a swipe at Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who wrote the Senate’s budget resolution and has been advocating for the Senate to move first amid delays in the House.
“The House and Senate are doing a SPECTACULAR job of working together as one unified, and unbeatable, TEAM, however, unlike the Lindsey Graham version of the very important Legislation currently being discussed, 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!,” Trump continued.
House GOP leaders and other senior Republicans have been personally lobbying Trump in recent days to go public with his support of the House budget resolution, according to a senior GOP source.
House Republican leaders also have been whipping rank-and-file members this week, and a number of moderate Republicans signaled they are undecided because of concerns over potential Medicaid cuts, one of the concerned GOP lawmakers said. The hope among top Republicans is that Trump’s public support will help get the holdouts to fall in line.
“@realDonaldTrump is right! House Republicans are working to deliver President Trump’s FULL agenda — not just a small part of it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who attended the Super Bowl with Trump and has been pushing for the House strategy, wrote on X. “Let’s get it done, @HouseGOP!”
Republicans in the White House and on Capitol Hill have been debating for more than two months whether to pass Trump’s agenda in one bill or break it up into two. Trump had indicated a preference for a one-bill approach but had made it clear he’d be fine with either process.
The Senate voted 50-47 to advance Graham’s budget resolution Tuesday. It was a party-line vote, with Rand Paul, of Kentucky, the only Republican to vote against it, and it set up a “vote-a-rama” for later this week, when senators can propose amendments to the bill.
Graham had pitched his slimmed-down budget measure as a way to immediately deliver on Trump’s need for more money to enforce immigration law and carry out his mass deportation plans. He has aligned with Thune on the need for a two-track plan that pushes a tax overhaul down the road.
In his closed-door meeting, Vance told GOP senators that it’s “not a competition” between the two chambers and that Trump “prefers” a one-bill approach but “recognizes we need to have a backup plan,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said as he left the meeting.
Asked whether Vance gave his blessing for the Senate to move forward, Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., replied that Vance “didn’t say, ‘Stop it, you dumbasses.'”
Graham said: “You always need a plan B around here. So we’re going to move forward tomorrow.”
A House GOP source familiar with the debate expressed concern that if the Senate passes its budget this week, it would “jam” the House and give momentum to the Senate’s strategy.
Last week, the House Budget Committee voted 21-16 along party lines to approve a massive budget resolution that calls for more spending on immigration and the military, alongside $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that would be partly offset by unspecified spending cuts. It also includes a $4 trillion increase in the debt limit.
House GOP leaders plan to put that budget on the floor for a vote when lawmakers return next week now that Trump has endorsed it.
Republican senators expressed some surprised at Trump’s post. Thune told reporters, “I did not see that one coming.”
A close Trump ally, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said that he and others like the idea of “one big, beautiful, glamorous bill” but that Republicans need a plan B if the House strategy collapses.
“We also have to have alternative plans, and I think Lindsey represents an alternative,” Mullin said. “The House, if they can take one big, beautiful, glamorous bill and put 218 on the board, we can put 51 senators on the board here and pass it. Thing is, they haven’t proven that they can do that.”
Trump threw another wrench into congressional Republicans’ efforts when he told Fox News on Tuesday that his agenda wouldn’t include Medicaid cuts.
“Medicare, Medicaid — none of that stuff is going to be touched,” he said.
The House Republicans’ budget blueprint calls on the Energy and Commerce Committee to find $880 billion in deficit reduction. Spending less on Medicaid was seen internally as a key component of hitting that target.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., previewed the Democratic strategy to combat the Republican push this week, vowing that the party will be unified around attacking the effort as a ploy to give tax cuts to the wealthy by cutting middle-class programs.
“They want to give their billionaire buddies tax breaks, and the working families of America are paying for it,” he said.
Democrats will offer amendments about prohibiting tax cuts for the wealthy and protecting benefits, Schumer said. He summed up one amendment as: “If they cut even $1 from Medicaid, no one whose income is above $1 million can get any tax reduction.”
“We’re putting these guys on the spot. … This is affecting their own constituencies so many different ways,” he said. “The amendments will come to haunt them in 2026. … There’s a lot of support for this, a lot of enthusiasm for this. It unites the caucus — from Bernie [Sanders] to the most conservative members.”