Capitol Hill Update: Trump Endorses House Budget Resolution Amid Senate GOP Momentum

The Senate GOP’s budget resolution is on a glidepath toward adoption in the upper chamber, but President Donald Trump is not fully onboard with the two-bill approach. In a major win for House Republican leadership, the president took to his social media platform earlier today and called on the GOP to “kickstart” the reconciliation process using the House’s resolution to pass “one big beautiful bill.”

• What’s next? As of now, Senate Republicans are expected to move toward adopting their budget resolution upon conclusion of the so-called vote-a-rama — a process that allows for unlimited, rapid-fire consideration of amendments upon the conclusion of 50 hours of debate equally divided among both parties. However, it will be worth monitoring to see if Senate GOP leadership decides to hit the brakes on its process given President Trump’s endorsement of the House approach. It is also highly likely that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will bring the House GOP’s budget resolution to the floor next week with hopes that the president’s endorsement will shore up support among the conference. However, nothing official has been announced or posted as of this writing.

• Situational awareness. While the House’s resolution passed in committee with the full support of Republicans on the panel, leadership will still need to work overtime to ensure full support on the floor given the razor-thin margin. Some House and Senate Republicans — including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) — have taken issue with a provision adopted within the budget resolution that seeks to tie the overall size of the tax package to the amount of spending cuts ultimately achieved. Of note, several Senate Republicans, led by Leader Thune and Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), wrote to the president saying that they would not support a tax package that does not permanently extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Other House Republicans — including Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY), and Rob Bresnahan (R-PA) — have pushed back against deep cuts to public benefit programs like Medicaid.

— SENATE SET TO CONFIRM TRUMP SBA ADMINISTRATOR. Senators will gavel in today for a final up-or-down vote on the nomination of former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) to be Small Business Administrator. Kash Patel’s nomination to be Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is expected to come up during Thursday’s session, but timing could slip depending on when the Senate begins the “vote-a-rama.”