Graham releases Senate amendment to House budget resolution

Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., April 2 released the Senate's amendment to the House budget resolution for fiscal year 2025. This marks the next step towards reaching a common budget resolution that will allow Congress to move forward with the reconciliation process.

Of note, the Senate amendment leaves unchanged the instruction for the House Energy and Commerce Committee to cut a minimum of $880 billion in spending. The Energy and Commerce Committee has primary jurisdiction over Medicaid and other health care programs. The Senate budget resolution also would increase the debt limit by $5 trillion, which is $1 trillion more than what was in the House budget resolution.

The Senate could vote as soon as April 2 or April 3 on whether to advance the budget resolution, which would kick off a marathon session known as “vote-a-rama” before a final vote. If the revised resolution passes the Senate, it would move to the House for consideration.

“With the passage of this budget resolution, we unlock the ability for the appropriate Senate committees to fully fund our border needs for four years, provide much-needed financial relief to our military at a time of great danger, make the 2017 tax cuts permanent to energize the economy, and do what has been promised for decades: go through every line item of the budget to cut wasteful and unnecessary spending — hopefully by the trillions,” Graham said in a statement.