April 5 (UPI) — The U.S. Senate early Saturday approved a budget resolution, largely along party lines, that President Donald Trump has called “one big, beautiful bill” for the budget.
At 2:30 a.m., the upper chamber passed the resolution, 51-48, with all 46 Democrats voting against the bill, alongside Republicans Rand Paul of Kentucky and Susan Collins of Maine. Democrat Patty Murray of Washington didn’t vote.
The resolution needed only 50 votes with Vice President Vance available to break a tie.
The bill now goes to the GOP-controlled House, where Republicans have a 220-213 edge as a result of two vacancies because of the deaths of two Democrats.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican serving Louisiana, said he wants to bring the Senate’s plan to the floor next week. If the House passes the bill, the reconciliation process begins and Republicans will have the ability to circumvent a potential Democratic filibuster.
Some House conservatives, however, already are lining up in disapproval of the Senate resolution.
Andy Harris of Maryland, who leads the House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X that he won’t agree to a passage “until I see the actual spending and deficit reduction plans to enact President Trump’s America First agenda.”
Chip Roy of Texas warned in a post on X: “If the Senate’s ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ budget is put on the House floor, I will vote no.”
Before the vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, said the resolution is a “first step toward a final bill to make permanent the tax relief we implemented in 2017 and deliver a transformational investment in our border, national and energy security.”
Senators conducted an hours-long ritual called votearama on various amendments to the bill. Although most of these add-ons proposed by Democrats didn’t pass, they forced votes on matters that likely will be used in political campaigns.
The amendments included Trump’s trade war and cost-cutting moves by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
“Our amendments will give Republicans the chance to join us in hitting the kill switch on Donald Trump’s tariffs, on DOGE, on the attacks against Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday before voting started. “Republicans could snuff it out instantly tonight if they wanted. Will Republicans join us tonight and stand up to Donald Trump before he craters the economy?”
The Senate, along a 53-46 party-line vote, rejected an amendment by Sen. Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, to prohibit the use of “any commercial messaging application” to transmit information in impending military strikes. Last month security officials used the messaging app, Signal, to discuss a military operation.
A resolution to rescind Trump’s tariffs if they increased the cost of Americans'” groceries and everyday goods” also failed 53-46.
One amendment that was adopted, 51-48, was to protect Medicare and Medicaid.
In February, the House Republicans passed a bill that contained $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and a $2 trillion reduction in federal spending over a decade.
Senate Republicans’ plan did not include taxes and spending cuts in the bill, though the budget does call for a $150 billion increase in military spending and $175 billion more for border security over 10 years.
The Senate budget has $1.5 trillion in tax cuts but it doesn’t show an additional $3.8 trillion for extending the 2017 tax cuts. They say it should not show up on the federal balance sheet. Those tax breaks are scheduled to expire at the end of the year.
Democrats lambasted the bill’s passage.
“Just left the Senate after voting a hard NO on the ‘one big, beautiful bill,'” Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., wrote on social platform X. “I will never support a bill that uses Medicare, Medicaid or SNAP cuts to pay for tax cuts for billionaires.”
In March, Fetterman was among 10 Democrats who joined Republican in voting for a continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown.
“Republicans just rammed their terrible budget plan through the Senate,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland wrote Saturday on X. “It’s never been more clear: they are hell bent on passing a giant tax giveaway for billionaires like Elon Musk at the expense of everybody else. We won’t stop fighting.”
Schumer, who also approved the continuing resolution, wrote on X: “Donald Trump has betrayed the American people. And in voting for this budget bill, Senate Republicans sided with billionaires, against the middle class, in total obeisance to Donald Trump.
Senate Republicans, on the other hand, praised passage of the bill.
“Tonight, the Senate took one small step toward reconciliation and one giant leap toward making the tax cuts permanent, securing the border, providing much-needed help for the military and finally cutting wasteful Washington spending,” Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, wrote on X.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, also a Republican serving South Carolina, said in a statement. “President Trump wants to balance the budget and decrease our debt.”
