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CNN
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Senate Republicans announced Wednesday they are muscling ahead with their preferred legislative strategy to jumpstart Donald Trump’s agenda — just hours after the president himself backed a much different approach.
That power move by Senate Majority Leader John Thune is setting up a dramatic clash with House Speaker Mike Johnson when the House returns next week, and possibly with Trump himself, as party leaders attempt to deliver the White House’s ambitious policy goals despite a historically narrow margin in Congress. And it comes with high stakes: Both chambers must agree on an identical approach to unlock the special powers that allow Trump to pass his agenda without the threat of the Senate filibuster — all while facing critical looming deadlines, such as the expiration of Trump’s tax cuts later this year.
“President Trump prefers one big, beautiful bill. So do I, but you always have a plan B around here,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. “I am pulling for the House to pull it together and get one big, beautiful bill, but it’s gotta be consistent with President Trump’s tax agenda. Right now the tax agenda is to make the tax cuts permanent, and the House bill doesn’t do that.”
Thune declared Wednesday he plans to move ahead this week with plans to complete part one of Trump’s agenda — a budget that directs the Senate to pass border security and energy production — even as Trump himself weighed in to back the House GOP’s far more sweeping approach, which has a slew of plans to pass tax breaks, a temporary debt limit hike and trillions in cuts to federal programs.
House Republicans have said they need to cram everything into a single bill or risk missing key deadlines, like the one for tax reform or the spring debt limit. But Senate GOP leaders have said the priority should be to deliver Trump a win and money for his priorities quickly.
The internal GOP dispute, which has been raging for months now, is over more than just tactics: It’s a sign of the anxiety by many Republicans, particularly in the Senate, that Trump’s full agenda may not pass the famously-erratic House. And it’s becoming an early test of how the Hill GOP’s relatively green leadership — Thune and Johnson — can corral their razor-thin majorities to work with an emboldened Trump and his aggressive plans to transform Washington.
Senate Republicans insisted their approach is necessary – and even acting as a motivator – for House Republicans as they struggle to coalesce behind a single plan that can get 218 votes. Johnson and his leadership team plan to pass their own budget blueprint next week, but they have little room for error and even one or two absences can scramble their plans.
“They have come as far as they have come because of feeling that pressure from us and we’d be silly to stop that momentum now,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, said.
“If the House can’t get their one bill through, I am for whatever can get 218 votes in the House, 51 votes in the Senate, and get signed by the president of the United States,” Republican Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming told reporters. “Everything else is just about the tactics of how to get that done.”
Thune’s decision to press forward, however, puzzled some in the conference, including Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri who questioned the wisdom of going through an hourslong vote-a-rama full of tough votes for the party on a budget blueprint that Trump hasn’t even endorsed. The Senate will begin that marathon series of votes Thursday evening, and it is expected to last through Friday morning.
“I am a little baffled by what we are doing to be honest,” Hawley said, adding he was not committed to voting for the budget until he had “some assurance” from the president that Trump was backing it. “It just seems a little bizarre to me. I can’t quite figure out what we are doing.”
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has also said he will not back the plan because of concerns over the nation’s debt.
And it wasn’t immediately clear what would ensue if both chambers successfully passed their respective budget plans. Asked by CNN what would happen if both the House and Senate passed different budgets, GOP Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin replied: “We pass that, and then we start doing the hard work.”
Thune’s decision to power ahead comes after Senate Republicans huddled with Vice President JD Vance for over an hour in the Capitol, where the vice president took questions from across the GOP conference on everything from the budget to the debt ceiling. Vance did not advise the Senate against moving ahead with their own budget plan, and senators left believing Trump wouldn’t be opposed even though he prefers the House plan, according to GOP senators in the room.
“The president likes the idea of the two-prong approach; that this is not a competition, that the House and Senate are different. The president still prefers a single bill. Frankly, so do I, but he recognizes we need to have a backup plan, and we’re going forward,” said Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, summing up Vance’s message.
The House is out on recess this week away from Washington as the Senate moves to advance their plan, but House leaders are warning they won’t cede ground when they get back. Leaders are spending the week whipping votes and trying to unite the caucus around the plan, but there are several conservatives in the GOP who have voiced skepticism that the House bill makes enough cuts – and some in the House have also said they prefer a two-bill strategy. House leaders have tried to rally their conference from afar with Republican Leader Steve Scalise posting on X Wednesday, “the House Republican Budget Resolution implements President @realDonaldTrump’s FULL America First Agenda- not just parts of it- and he’s made clear that’s what Congress needs to pass.”
Trump himself backed the House GOP’s all-of-the-above approach on Wednesday, weighing in for the first time to praise Johnson’s measure.
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“The House Resolution implements my FULL America First Agenda, EVERYTHING, not just parts of it!” Trump wrote on Truth Social, before calling on both chambers to pass the House’s version.
But GOP senators warn their bill is insurance for Trump.
“We’ve all heard (Trump), but we’re not going to twiddle our thumbs,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama. “We’re gonna do something to see if, if theirs falls in, then we’ll have something prepared.”
CNN’s Ted Barrett, Morgan Rimmer, Manu Raju and Jenna Monnin contributed to this report.