As Republican senators head to Florida to meet with President Trump on Friday night, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee released the outline of a 2025 budget resolution that would increase spending on defense and immigration enforcement by about $342 billion. The resolution, the first part of a two-bill strategy for passing the bulk of Trump’s agenda, would pave the way for a reconciliation bill that the Senate could pass quickly by simple majority vote while jumping ahead of Republicans in the House still scrambling to finalize a single massive bill of their own.
The proposal from Sen. Lindsey Graham would increase spending for border enforcement by $175 billion, with funds for a border wall, detention facilities and immigration personnel. Military spending would increase by $150 billion, with an emphasis on force readiness, shipbuilding, missile defense and nuclear deterrence. The proposal also seeks to boost energy production through lease sales and tax rule changes.
Graham said the House — which has fallen behind on its aggressive timeline for passing Trump’s agenda through a single bill that includes defense and border security but also complicated tax and spending provisions — is running out of time, forcing the Senate to move first with a smaller, simpler bill addressing key parts of Trump’s agenda while leaving the tax elements for later in the year.
“I hope the House will move forward soon, but we cannot allow this moment to pass, and we cannot let President Trump's America First Agenda stall,” Graham said on social media.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune seconded the call for the House to step aside, saying, “The time to act is now, and Senate Republicans are ready to roll.”
The House, however, still wants to lead the way on the legislation while sticking to its one-bill strategy. But House Republicans have been unable to agree on a budget resolution.
“We’ve got a few more people we’ve got to talk with and a couple of boxes to check, but we are almost there. I’m very encouraged by this,” Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Friday. “The expectation is we’ll be marking up a budget early next week, potentially as early as Tuesday, the resolution. And that will, of course, begin the process.”
Johnson said he plans to brief Trump on the House plan this weekend, when he attends the Super Bowl with the president in New Orleans. Trump could end up playing the deciding role in which strategy takes precedence if the House and the Senate pass dueling budget resolutions next week.