The Senate early Saturday advanced a budget framework for sweeping tax and spending cuts after rejecting Democratic amendments on tariffs, USDA payments, rural hospitals, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Senate adopted the fiscal 2025 budget resolution, 51-48, with two Republicans voting against it, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine.
Now, the resolution heads back to the House, where it already faces resistance from budget hawks who may take issue with funding mechanisms for extending tax cuts. House approval of the budget resolution would allow Republicans to use the budget reconciliation process to enact President Donald Trump's legislative priorities, including tax and spending cuts and targeted spending increases for the border and the military.
House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, R-Texas, issued a statement Saturday criticizing the budget resolution as "unserious and disappointing."
Arrington said the resolution would create "$5.8 trillion in new costs and a mere $4 billion in enforceable cuts, less than one day’s worth of borrowing by the federal government."
The resolution leaves until later critical decisions about the scope of the spending cuts, and what if any farm bill programs to include in reconciliation.
The resolution would require the House Agriculture Committee to find $230 billion in spending cuts, while the Senate Ag Committee would only be instructed to find $1 billion in reductions. Chairs of the two committees expect the cut in the reconciliation bill to wind up somewhere in between. Meanwhile, the committee leaders are discussing including in reconciliation increased reference prices for the Price Loss Coverage program and other enhancements for commodity programs and crop insurance.
The resolution takes a current policy baseline approach to paying for extensions to expiring provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Under this approach, it assumes there is no additional cost to extending the provisions.
Democrats proposed amendments on the resolution to force Republicans to go on the record on various issues.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., brought a measure that would have reversed any tariffs enacted after Trump’s inauguration that have increased costs on groceries and common goods. The amendment would have left tariffs against U.S. adversaries, like China and North Korea, still in place.
“This is the worst, worst tariff imposition we have ever seen,” Schumer said. “A yes vote means a recession, folks.”
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said the tariffs do not fall under any authority included in reconciliation.
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“We can and should have a debate about how we should engage in effective trade,” Crapo said. “But that’s not this bill.”
The amendment failed 46-53 along party lines.
The chamber did adopt an amendment, 51-48, offered by Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, that called for protecting Medicare and Medicaid.
However, Republicans rejected multiple other Democrat-backed amendments that aimed to protect these programs from cuts through the reconciliation process. For example, with the exception of two members, Republicans rejected an amendment from Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., that called for preventing a reduction in enrollment or benefits for Medicaid participants.
Another amendment, from Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., directly addressed the impact of potential Medicaid cuts on rural hospitals, an issue rural health advocates have raised throughout the budget reconciliation process so far. The amendment would have prevented any cuts to Medicaid that could lead to rural hospital closures. It failed on a 49-50 vote.
Crapo said any reforms to Medicaid or Medicare would not impact benefits, and said text in the resolution affirms this. Democrats point to the $880 billion cut that the House Energy and Commerce Committee would be required to make as evidence that Medicaid is at risk.
An amendment offered by Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., to strike the instructions to the House Agriculture Committee for a $230 billion cut failed, 47-51.
The Senate rejected by voice vote an amendment from Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., that would have prohibited USDA from withholding funds through contracts made with farmers. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman, R-Ark., said the amendment was not necessary because the new administration has been releasing funds after a review.
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