US Senate passes budget blueprint, without Trump support -

21/2/2025

The US Senate passed a budget blueprint early Friday that steamrolled past Democratic opposition, moving one step closer to unlocking the funds the Trump administration wants for border security and other priorities.

The slimmed-down framework — which lacks Trump’s support, as it does not include tax cuts he wants to extend — was adopted after an all-night “vote-a-rama” voting session on multiple amendments brought forward by Democrats.

The pressure is now on the House of Representatives, whose Republican leaders insist they want to pass their own budget text — “one big beautiful bill,” as Trump terms it, including tax cuts.

If they fail to reach agreement in the short term, however, they could fall back on the narrower budget framework adopted in the Senate on Friday.

The resolution passed overnight would allow the budget to pass through the Senate with just a simple majority, instead of needing 60 votes. Republicans control the chamber, but with only 53 votes.

Any budget would still need to pass through the House, where Republicans also hold a narrow majority — before becoming law.

Senate Republicans are pushing to pass the slimmed-down budget to help Trump score early political victories on issues such as migration, which has long topped his agenda.

Their version would push other initiatives such as extending his tax credits — which Trump implemented in his first term, and which expire at the end of the year — down the road several months.

The Republican leadership in the House of Representatives prefer the “big beautiful” bill that includes the tax credits and other flagship measures.

Massive federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, providing health insurance for millions of Americans, could be targeted by staunch conservatives in the House as they seek to offset the cost of extending Trump’s tax credits.

But slashing those programs could prove wildly unpopular. With only a slim majority in the House, Republicans risk seeing their text rejected.

Trump thanked Senate Republicans in a post on his Truth Social platform Thursday for working to fund his border program.

But he did not backtrack on his earlier comments calling for the larger House budget framework to pass.

“We need both Chambers to pass the House Budget to ‘kickstart’ the Reconciliation process, and move all of our priorities to the concept of, ‘ONE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL,’” he wrote in a Truth Social post Wednesday.