The development is sure to be unwelcome news for their counterparts in the House, who have advocated a third bill.The ambitious push from House Republicans for another party-line package in Trump’s second term, and before they potentially lose power in the midterm elections, is not considered by senators to be a realistic feat, even as Congress on Tuesday was on the cusp of delivering its second in the form of $70 billion in immigration enforcement funding.
“We’re keeping the option open, for sure. But a lot of that’s going to depend again on what the traffic will bear,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told the Washington Examiner. “Can they get something out of the House, and can we get 51 for anything in the Senate, or 50 these days, which was kind of evident last week that’s going to be hard.”
Other key Senate Republicans were more openly skeptical, all but shooting down the notion from House GOP lawmakers that they could use the filibuster-skirting process to advance their broader federal spending priorities rather than the annual appropriations process that requires Democratic buy-in.
Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins (R-ME), up for reelection in a battleground race, chastised Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink during a budget hearing on Tuesday over using a third reconciliation for defense-related spending. She said the administration’s funding request “is taking a terrible risk and creates instability when you’re counting on a third reconciliation bill for the bulk of the money rather than doing base funding through the federal appropriations bills.”
