Thune Delays $95 Billion GOP Budget Bill to Push Funding Extension as Senate Lacks 50 Votes
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Jul 24
Thune Delays $95 Billion GOP Budget Bill to Push Funding Extension as Senate Lacks 50 Votes
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Jul 24
Summary
John Thune is holding the House budget framework so the Senate can move first on a continuing resolution, arguing averting a shutdown before the fall midterms is the immediate priority.
50 votes are not there for the budget resolution, Thune said, a problem that also slows any Senate effort to advance parts of Trump's SAVE America Act through reconciliation.
60 Senate votes are needed to pass a stand-alone funding extension, so Republicans are already negotiating with Democrats — a strategy that has drawn pushback from Sen. John Kennedy and House conservatives.
House Republicans say the Senate should handle both tracks at once, but Thune's floated workaround of attaching a continuing resolution to reconciliation is also facing resistance as an unusual mix of discretionary and mandatory funding.
The dispute underscores broader GOP divisions that had already put Mike Johnson's $95 billion blueprint and a third reconciliation package in doubt ahead of the midterm campaign.