House Passes Resolution To Kick Off New Reconciliation Bill Aimed at Adding Tens of Billions to Pentagon Budget

The House has passed a resolution which will kick off the process of adding tens of billions of dollars to this year’s Pentagon budget on a party-line vote. Senate Republicans have threatened to block the resolution until the House swallows its own government funding agreement.President Trump has demanded a $1.5 trillion annual military budget this year, though Democrats have made clear that no such thing will happen. The highest they have been willing to go is about $1.15 trillion through the normal appropriations process, which takes 60 votes in the Senate in order to pass. Using the reconciliation process will allow Republicans to pass additional Pentagon funding over the objections of Democrats.“We’re going to use reconciliation because we’re not going to let our troops be held hostage,” the chairman of the Budget Committee, Congressman Jodey Arrington, said at the markup hearing last week. The budget resolution as currently drafted would cost $95 billion, with $73 billion being appropriated for military and intelligence capabilities. The other $22 billion would be used to nudge states to establish new election security measures and for farm aid. On Wednesday, the House passed a resolution to kick off the reconciliation process by a one-vote margin, 216 to 214. Just three Republicans voted against the resolution, all of whom cited the lack of spending cuts to other areas of the budget as their reason for opposing the measure.“Last week, a bill to more properly care for our veterans failed when Congress couldn’t agree on offsets to pay for the new spending. This week, the same people want to spend $95 billion for other priorities with zero offsets. Broken promises and broken priorities,” Congressman Warren Davidson, one of the three GOP no votes, wrote on X on Wednesday.Many Senate Republicans agree with Mr. Davidson’s take, saying that tens of billions of dollars in additional Pentagon spending must be offset by cutting other areas of the budget.“Our national debt is a runaway train. The next reconciliation bill should be fully paid for,” Senator Bill Cassidy wrote in a brief statement last Thursday. The majority leader, Senator John Thune, is threatening to essentially hold the budget resolution hostage until the House agrees to pass a government funding agreement which will allow the government to remain open through the midterm elections. The government is set to shut down at the end of the day on September 30, though Republicans are hoping to get a funding deal out of the way early enough so they can leave town early to go home and campaign. “If they give us a budget resolution as a vehicle, we will hold that subject obviously to be able to move a continuing resolution to fund the government,” Mr. Thune said at a press conference on Tuesday.“It’s a possibility that — if necessary — we could pull that budget resolution passed by the House and use it to fund [the] government,” he said. “I hope that’s not necessary.”The Senate is so far not planning on taking up their own version of a budget reconciliation blueprint. In order to do so, the Senate Budget Committee must set what are known as “budget instructions,” which essentially direct the relevant committees to either increase or decrease spending in certain areas that fall under each committee’s respective jurisdiction. Usually, the process takes weeks. The Senate is currently expected to leave town in just 14 days, though they could leave earlier if they complete some other important business, such as drafting a government funding deal and confirming some of Mr. Trump’s executive branch nominees.

House Passes Resolution To Kick Off New Reconciliation Bill Aimed at Adding Tens of Billions to Pentagon Budget

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