The House and Senate are a long way from approving President Donald Trump\u2019s “big, beautiful bill” to cut spending, slash taxes and likely raise the debt ceiling.<\/p>\n
But the next step in the process begins unfolding Thursday afternoon and over the next 48 hours.<\/p>\n
The Senate likely votes between 4 and 6 p.m. ET Thursday to actually “proceed” to a retooled budget framework. The framework is necessary under special budget rules the Senate is using to avoid a filibuster, which would kill the bill.<\/p>\n
REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: APRIL FOOLS’ ON CAPITOL HILL<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n If the Senate<\/a> fails to proceed, Republicans have major problems. But if the Senate can forge ahead, then it can actually launch up to 50 hours of debate on the updated budget package and go to what\u2019s called a “vote-a-rama” on Friday evening. The Senate would presumably finish this step in the process and adopt the new framework in the wee hours of Saturday morning or perhaps during the day on Saturday.<\/p>\n A “vote-a-rama” is really just a very Senate way of saying “long vote series which probably runs all night.” The Senate rifles through roll call vote after roll call vote for hours on end. Most vote-a-ramas run 10\u201315 hours. They are always related to the budget process. And, because of special budget rules, senators can offer an unlimited number of amendments \u2014 and that\u2019s why there are so many votes.<\/p>\n Republicans will try to get through this process as quickly as possible \u2014 although some conservatives may offer amendments for additional debt reduction or something related to the debt ceiling.<\/p>\n DEMOCRAT REP VOWS TO WORK WITH TRUMP ON KEY PART OF TARIFF PLAN: \u2018HOPING THAT I CAN HELP\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Democrats will likely offer a host of amendments to get vulnerable Republicans on the record about controversial issues like possible cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and even tariffs.<\/p>\n The bottom line is this:<\/p>\n There is high interest in Congress<\/a> advancing the “big, beautiful bill.” It\u2019s the touchstone of Trump\u2019s legislative agenda and probably the most significant piece of legislation to come before Congress over the next two years. But getting to a point where the House and Senate can actually try to approve the bill itself is an exhaustive process and months away. However, this incremental step is essential to getting there. And that\u2019s why interested parties will focus on the vote-a-rama starting Friday night and when it ends.<\/p>\n Also, why start this process so late on a Thursday and compel the Senate to meet on a Friday night and into the weekend? Especially when the Senate has had multiple weekend sessions already this year and several overnight sessions? That includes the all-night, record-breaking speech by Sen. Cory Booker<\/a>, D-N.J., earlier this week.<\/p>\n There is some method to the madness.<\/p>\n First, the Senate needs to get through this step. Time is of the essence. But secondly, Fox is told that holding off until later in the week could limit the length of the vote-a-rama if the Senate doesn\u2019t start until Friday night. That isn\u2019t to say the vote-a-rama won\u2019t be long and tiring. But it could abbreviate the process.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s take a step backward so we can look forward on what the House and Senate must still do to pass the tax cut and spending cut plan. There are potentially eight steps here. The Senate motion over the next few days is step three.<\/p>\n In February, the Senate adopted an initial budget outline so it could use the special “budget reconciliation process” and avoid a filibuster.<\/p>\n The House<\/a> approved its own version of a budget outline in late February \u2014 even though the consequences of the filibuster mean nothing to the House. But the issue was that the House and Senate approved different budget frameworks. They still need to sync up.<\/p>\n So those were steps one and two of this protracted process.<\/p>\n The Senate\u2019s vote-a-rama \u2014 culminating with the adoption of a new, updated budget blueprint \u2014 is step three.<\/p>\n Step four likely comes next week when the Senate\u2019s updated package goes to the House. Speaker Mike Johnson<\/a>, R-La., indicated Wednesday night he\u2019d like the House to align with the Senate framework next week. So that entails another vote. However, some archconservatives might look askance at the Senate\u2019s spending cut numbers. Those close to the Senate process have told Fox that those figures represent a “floor” for spending cuts. Not a “ceiling.” But the ultimate Senate number might not please as many House conservatives.<\/p>\n Why does the Senate do it this way? To comply with specific, strict Senate budgetary rules.<\/p>\n Johnson seemed buoyed last night after he swore in new Reps. Jimmy Patronis, R-Fla., and Randy Fine, R-Fla., on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n “The margin is a little more comfortable. It’s an embarrassment of riches. Now we can lose, what, three votes now or something,” he said.<\/p>\n Yours truly asked Patronis if he and Fine would vote for the still incomplete package when it comes over from the Senate.<\/p>\n “I vote for my speaker,” replied Patronis.<\/p>\n “Right!” piped up Johnson.<\/p>\n It\u2019s possible the speaker was glad to have some backup after one of the worst weeks of his tenure. Johnson lost an internecine fight over proxy voting for members who are pregnant or new moms. That blocked the House from considering other major bills and forced him to shut the House down for the rest of the week on Tuesday.<\/p>\n Regardless, if the House adopts the plan now before the Senate, they go to steps five and six. That\u2019s where the House and Senate actually assemble, debate and presumably pass the bill itself. Those steps will be the most challenging set yet. And it likely involves yet another vote-a-rama in the Senate.<\/p>\n Then, we may have steps seven and eight. That\u2019s where the House and Senate may need to take yet another set of votes to align again \u2014 if both bodies have approved different bills.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why passing the “big, beautiful bill” may take until summer. And there will undoubtedly be additional hiccups along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The House and Senate are a long way from approving President Donald Trump\u2019s “big, beautiful bill” to cut spending, slash taxes and likely raise the debt ceiling. But the next step in the process begins unfolding Thursday afternoon and over the next 48 hours. The Senate likely votes between 4 and 6 p.m. ET Thursday … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}