What’s Going On With the Budget?

Last night the Senate amended and passed the Republican budget resolution for fiscal year 2018 on a 51-49 party-line vote, marking another step in the process toward considering a tax reform bill under reconciliation.

But even though the budget resolution already passed the House and wouldn’t need to go to President Donald Trump’s desk for a signature (because it’s non-binding), there’s still more work to be done. The Senate amended the House-passed version by removing the requirement that tax reform legislation be deficit-neutral and lifting caps on defense spending, which leaves the next step in the process unclear for the moment.

Congress could choose to send the bill to a conference committee that’d merge the two versions of the budget resolution into legislation that can be passed by both chambers. But that could drag the process out by an additional week or two, and Republicans want to bring up tax reform legislation as soon as possible.

To get around a time-consuming conference committee, the House could take up the resolution in the form the Senate passed it in. It’s not clear if there’s enough support among House GOP deficit hawks to pass the budget without the spending cuts included in the version they already passed. If Republican leaders think they'll have the backing they need, a vote on the budget resolution could come as early as next week. Once the budget resolution is approved, the House Ways and Means Committee will release the actual tax reform bill and hold markup hearings on it.

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— Eric Revell

RELATED READING

• The GOP Budget for Fiscal Year 2018 and Using Reconciliation for Tax Reform and Deficit Reduction

• 5 Things You Need to Know About the Budget

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