WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate Budget Committee is set to mark up budgetary resolutions next week, starting with a long and challenging settlement process that the GOP hopes can be used to pass sweeps to border security and immigration policies.

South Carolina Republican Chairman Lindsey Graham announced his markup on Wednesday, moving ahead of the House, which he hoped to move budget resolutions through the committee this week.

“To those who believe that Republicans should fulfill their promises regarding border security and massive deportation of criminal illegal aliens,” Graham wrote in a statement.

“That’s why the Senate Budget Committee will finish the wall next week on Trump administration’s border emperor Tom Homan, hire ice agents to deport illegal criminal immigrants and create more detention beds. That’s why we move forward to provide the money we need. We won’t release more dangerous people into the country.”

Graham said the settlement bill would “be the most transformative border security bill in our country’s history.”

Budget Blueprint

The Congressional budget resolution is a blueprint for tax and expenditures that reduce lawmakers’ vision for the 10-year budget window. Actual federal spending is not included.

The House and Senate must agree to adopt the same budget resolution before Congress officially unlocks the settlement process that will allow Republicans to enact policies without democratic support.

The GOP controls both legislatures, but Senate rules require at least 60 lawmakers to vote to limit discussions on the main bill. Republicans currently have 53 seats and are shy of the super-majority needed to move legislation through the usual process without democratic buy-in.

With a settlement process with strict rules in the Senate, the GOP will be able to make as long as the various elements of the package make money or spend money in a way that is not considered “simply contingent” by the Senator, as long as they make money or spend money. You can avoid the vote requirements. The settlement bill also cannot change social security.

One or two?

Senate Republicans are not guaranteed that moving first in a budget resolution would only include settlement instructions to address border security and immigration policies. there is no.

House GOP leaders have been coming for months to move through all policy goals, including those addressing taxes and energy, through a single settlement package.

Senate Republicans, including Graham; The party says they should write two separate settlement packages The first focuses on border security and a second addressing tax.

The House and Senate do not need to resolve all policy details of the final settlement package in the budget resolution, but they must agree to which committees obtain settlement instructions and what those instructions say. .

Voting – Llama is approaching

When the Senate Budget Committee votes for a budget resolution on the Senate floor, GOP leaders must devote floor time to debate the resolution. But before the Senate votes on the budget resolution, the senators will have to undertake a llama vote. Typically during marathon sessions overnight, the senators of both parties made dozens of amendments to the budget resolution.

Democrats will use this process to face a challenging reelection prospect in 2026 with senators a record of policies that could cause problems during primary or general elections.

The Senate budget resolution then goes to the House of Representatives, where GOP leaders can choose to adopt it or make changes.

The House can also bring its own budget resolution to the Budget Committee, which can be brought to the floor and then attend meetings with the Senate.

That’s before the House and Senate began discussing actual settlement bills with actual policy changes on committees and on the floor.

Last month, speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said he hopes the entire process will close by by the end of May.

House GOP leaders have a particularly narrow margin, holding only 218 seats at this time, compared to the 215 members of the Democrats. There are currently two vacancies that will be filled with special elections later this year.

Last updated at 4:47pm, February 5th, 2025