Senate adopts budget resolution after marathon vote-a-rama. Now what?

The Senate passed its budget resolution early on Friday, which acts as a framework to implement President Trump’s legislative agenda. It would provide $175 billion for border security and $150 billion in military funding.

The Senate’s adoption is an early step in the process, which requires detailed work by committees to work out the details of spending, as well as of any offsets to help pay for the additional funds.

The budget resolution is at odds with the House’s approach, and both chambers ultimately have to be on the same page to get the legislation across the finish line.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was the only Republican who did not vote for the Senate’s resolution. He said he opposed a measure adding more than $300 billion to the deficit and argued instead Congress should be voting to approve more spending cuts.

The adoption of the Senate resolution came after an overnight vote-a-rama: a marathon voting session on amendments that are non-binding but aimed at forcing lawmakers from both parties to go on the record about potentially contentious issues.

The vote-a-rama was a rare opportunity for Democrats as the party in the minority to bring legislation to the floor. Democrats used the vote-a-rama to try to force votes on preventing tax cuts for billionaires and opposing cuts to Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for those with low incomes.

GOP Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Josh Hawley of Missouri supported a Democratic amendment that ultimately failed, that would have blocked tax cuts for the wealthy if any Medicaid funding were to be cut.

The Senate forged ahead with its plan to vote on the budget resolution despite President Trump coming out earlier in the week to share his preference for the House’s strategy.

Both chambers have been at odds for months over the best way to implement the president’s agenda on securing more resources for the southern border and extending the tax cuts passed in the first Trump administration.

The Senate wants to tackle the border, military spending and energy policy sooner rather than later — and proposes a second bill later this year to address tax cuts. The House, concerned that getting its fractious conference on board with two bills is too precarious, wants to address all the priorities in one big bill.

On Thursday, Trump thanked the Senate for its efforts to fund his border agenda.

“Your work on funding this effort is greatly appreciated!” he wrote.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise plans to bring up the House’s budget resolution to the floor next week. Whether it can pass quickly is another story.

In order to appease members of the Freedom Caucus, House GOP leaders made adjustments to their resolution that would direct up to $2 trillion in spending cuts, with a large chunk likely coming from Medicaid.

Both chambers are using the budget resolution as part of a process called reconciliation — a budget tool that will enable Republicans to pass large swaths of Trump’s agenda without any Democratic support. Importantly, both chambers ultimately need to pass the same resolution.

The 2017 tax cuts that congressional Republicans want to renew expire at the end of 2025 — a looming deadline for both chambers.

NPR’s Deirdre Walsh contributed to this report.