Senate GOP Sets Ambitious Timeline To Advance Trump Agenda

Senate Republicans are setting an ambitious timeline to advance President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda during the three week work period that began Monday.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday evening that he wants the Senate to adopt a compromise budget resolution — the next step to enacting the president’s tax and spending priorities — with the House of Representatives by April 11. Thune’s decision to specify a timeline for passage of the budget blueprint comes after House GOP leadership and committee chairs publicly called on the Senate to move faster on advancing the president’s agenda in a statement released Monday morning.

House Republicans have also floated passing a compromise budget blueprint during the next three weeks.

Senate Republican leadership has insisted the upper chamber has been working diligently on enacting the president’s sweeping tax and spending priorities through the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process. Senate Republicans are expected to modify the House budget resolution to allow for a permanent extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which is a top priority for the president.

Failure to extend the expiring tax cuts would result in a tax increase for most U.S. households in 2026.

“We have been hard at work on legislation to extend the tax relief we passed during Trump’s first term and to make a transformational investment in our border and national security,” Thune said on the Senate floor Monday. “And those efforts will accelerate over the next three weeks.”

House Republican leadership’s decision to apply pressure on the Senate to move faster on crafting a budget blueprint comes as both chambers have yet to reach a deal on a budget blueprint that would lay the groundwork for a forthcoming tax and spending bill to pass the president’s agenda.

Some Senate Republicans, such as Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Mike Lee of Utah, have argued the House budget resolution did not go far enough in slashing spending and suggested their support for a compromise budget resolution will be contingent on adopting steeper spending cuts.

House and Senate Republicans initially passed competing budget resolutions with both chambers articulating diverging views over how best to pass the president’s agenda. Both chambers will need to pass a compromise budget resolution to reconcile the differences in their initial budget blueprints, which is the next phase of the budget reconciliation process.

“We took the first step to accomplish that by passing a budget resolution weeks ago, and we look forward to the Senate joining 🇺🇸US in this commitment to ensure we enact President Trump’s full agenda as quickly as possible,” House GOP leadership and committee chairs said in a statement. “The American people gave 🇺🇸US a mandate, and we must act on it. We encourage our Senate colleagues to take up the House budget resolution when they return to Washington.”

House Republicans’ public pressure campaign also follows House Majority Whip Tom Emmer telling the Daily Caller News Foundation that Senate Republicans must “pick up the pace” on advancing Trump’s legislative agenda on March 15.

GOP lawmakers are seeking to provide additional funding to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to fast-track the president’s deportation agenda, boost defense spending and increase oil and gas leases in a budget reconciliation package this year. They are also working to enact the president’s sweeping tax priorities, which include a permanent extension of the Trump tax cuts and no taxes on tips, overtime pay or Social Security benefits.

Failure to swiftly pass a final reconciliation bill could delay how quickly voters see the impact of Trump’s legislative agenda before the midterms.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/Architect of the Capitol)

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