Senate Republicans abandoned plans Friday night to try to take up a budget resolution for a third reconciliation package, bowing to the reality that they lacked enough votes for it.
The decision to scrap a planned procedural vote on the budget came after a late-night meeting in Majority Leader John Thune’s office with key senators and a phone call with President Donald Trump.
Trump had urged the Senate for weeks not to leave town for the August recess before making headway on a reconciliation package that would pump up defense spending and impose elements of the so-called SAVE America Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and photo ID at the polls.
But Senate Budget Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said Trump agreed to give the reconciliation effort more time to shore up support.
“There was a concern whether or not we could actually pass the budget resolution tonight,” Johnson told reporters after the meeting. “Then we had a discussion with the president. He agrees. Don’t take the vote tonight, and just work diligently through August and September to do an actually … better reconciliation bill.”
