Senators kept chugging through an all-night budget “vote-a-rama,” a crucial, if dreaded, step toward unleashing a $340 billion package President Donald Trump’s team says it needs for mass deportations and security measures that top the Republican agenda.
If ever there was a time to watch Congress in action, this might be it. Or not. Senators have been voting for hours, as late Thursday night turned into early Friday, on one amendment after another, largely from Democrats trying to halt the package. The result will be a final push by the Republicans to use their majority power to pass it on a party-line vote, likely by morning.
“What we’re doing today is jumpstarting a process that will allow the Republican Party to meet President Trump’s immigration agenda,” Senate Budget Committee chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said while opening the debate.
Graham said Trump’s top immigration czar, Tom Homan, told senators that the administration’s deportation operations are “out of money” and need more funding from Congress to detain and deport immigrants.
With little power in the minority to stop the onslaught, Democrats instead are using the all-night debate to force GOP senators into potentially embarrassing votes — including the first one, on blocking tax breaks to billionaires. It was turned back, on procedural grounds. So were many others.
“This is going to be a long, drawn-out fight,” warned Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
The package that senators are pushing forward is what Republicans view as a down payment on Trump’s agenda, part of a broader effort that will eventually include legislation to extend some $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and other priorities. That’s being assembled by House Speaker Mike Johnson in a separate budget package that also seeks up to $2 trillion in reductions to health care and other programs.
Trump has preferred what he calls one “big, beautiful bill,” but the White House is open to the Senate’s strategy of working on the border package first, then turning to tax cuts later this year.
As voting began, the president signaled his go-ahead, posting a thank you to Senate Majority Leader John Thune “and the Republican Senate, for working so hard on funding the Trump Border Agenda.”
What’s in the Senate GOP package
The Republican Senate package would allow up to $175 billion to be spent on border security, including money for mass deportation operations and building the U.S.-Mexico border wall, in addition to a $150 billion boost to the Pentagon and about $20 billion for the Coast Guard.
But even if the Senate pushes the package to approval in the all-night session, there won’t be any money flowing just yet.
The budget resolution is simply a framework that sends instructions to the various Senate committees — Homeland Security, Armed Services, Judiciary — to hammer out the details. Everything will eventually be assembled in another package, with another vote-a-rama down the road.
Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the No. 2-ranking Senate Republican, said GOP lawmakers are acting quickly to get the administration the resources they have requested and need to curb illegal border crossings.
“The budget will allow us to finish the wall. It also takes the steps we need toward more border agents,” Barrasso said. “It means more detention beds. … It means more deportation flights.”
Republicans insist the whole thing will be paid for, rather than piled onto debt, with potential spending cuts and new revenues.
The committees are expected to consider rolling back the Biden administration’s methane emissions fee, which was approved by Democrats as part of climate change strategies in the Inflation Reduction Act, and hoping to draw new revenue from energy leases as they aim to spur domestic energy production.
In fact, the only amendment accepted after several hours of debate was a Republican effort to fend off criticism the package would be paid for by cutting safety net programs. The amendment from Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, said Medicaid and Medicare would be strengthened during the budget process.
Democrats are ready for battle
First up from Democrats was a vote to prevent tax breaks for billionaires — an amendment that was repeated in various forms throughout the night.
Democrats argue that the GOP tax cuts approved in 2017 flowed to the wealthiest Americans, and extending them as Trump wants Congress to do later this year would prolong the giveaway. Even though the billionaire amendments failed, they picked up some Republican support. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine voted for several of them, and Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri voted for another.
Schumer launched a strategy earlier this week to use the budget debate to focus on both the implications of the tax policy and the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is slashing across the federal government.
It’s a better approach for Democrats than arguing against tougher border security and deportations, which divides the party.
By midnight, senators had processed at least a dozen amendments.
Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the single biggest driver of the national debt since 2001 has been a series of Republican-led tax cuts.
“And you’ll never guess what our Republican colleagues on the other side of the aisle are focused on right now, nothing to lower the cost of eggs, it’s actually more Republican tax cuts,” Murray said.
She called the budget plan a “roadmap for painful cuts to programs families count on each and every day, all so they can give billionaires more tax cuts.”
Congress is racing itself
The budget resolution is setting up what’s called the reconciliation process, which used to be rare, but is now the tool often used to pass big bills on party-line votes when one party has control of the White House and Congress, as Republicans do now.
But Republicans are arguing with themselves over how to proceed. The House is marching ahead on its “big, beautiful bill,” believing they have one chance to get it right. The Senate views its two-bill strategy as more practical, delivering on border security first, then turning to taxes later.
Budget rules allow for passage by a simple majority vote, which is key in the Senate, where it typically takes 60 votes to break a filibuster on big items. During Trump’s first term, Republicans used the reconciliation process to pass GOP tax cuts in 2017. Democrats used reconciliation during Joe Biden’s presidency to approve COVID-19 relief and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Trump appears to be stirring the fight, pitting Republicans in the House and Senate against each other to see which one delivers fastest.
