We’re finally beginning to see tangible progress on President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.
Senate Republicans are making a weekend of it in Washington and will kick off a vote-a-rama on the compromise budget resolution tonight. That should wrap up by the wee hours of Saturday morning. And the House will try to take up the measure next week.
Senate Democrats will try to make the vote-a-rama incredibly painful for Republicans.
It’s amendment time: The political downside of reconciliation — which allows the Senate majority to dodge a filibuster — is that the minority party can force an unlimited number of votes on amendments before final passage. The amendments that pass will be stripped from the final version, so these votes are effectively non-binding. But the goal is to make the process as politically painful as possible for the majority party.
We expect Democrats to force votes on several issues that have divided Republicans — on everything from Medicaid cuts to tariffs.
“My colleagues and I will begin to put the Republican agenda on trial before the court of public opinion here on the floor of the Senate,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said last night as he started the debate.
“It’s going to be a long few days for Senate Republicans,” Schumer added.
And Democrats say they want to litigate as many of these arguments as possible during the daylight hours. To that end, the Senate will convene earlier than usual this morning — at 8:30 a.m. Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are expected to kick things off for Democrats.
Schumer, in particular, will want to make this very painful for Republicans after the Democratic base was furious with him for helping the GOP keep the government open.
Got weekend plans? During Thursday’s Senate GOP lunch, Republicans discussed the possibility of staying in session through the weekend to process additional nominations, rather than taking the rest of the weekend off and returning Monday. The idea would be to begin the scheduled two-week recess a day or two earlier.
Nothing is set in stone yet, but lots of senators indicated they prefer powering through if it means leaving early for recess. Republican leaders could also dangle a time agreement to Democrats, which could allow the GOP to fast-track some of Trump’s nominees.
This could include Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who was the subject of some drama at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee business meeting Wednesday that led to a Democratic walkout.
