2-year budget deal

Senate set to vote on massive 2-year budget deal

The legislation lifts the debt ceiling for two years and raises spending $320 billion over current levels.

By BURGESS EVERETT and JOHN BRESNAHAN

The Senate is on the verge of approving a two-year bipartisan budget deal to send to President Donald Trump’s desk, putting an end to the threat of a default and easing the path toward funding the government past Sept. 30.

The Senate will begin voting Thursday morning on the bill, which raises spending $320 billion over current levels, lifts the debt ceiling for two years and sets a course for funding the government without the fiscal brinkmanship of recent years, including the recent 35-day shutdown over the border wall. It needs 60 votes to pass the Senate, and while the budget is supposed to pass, the vote may be close.

"This is the agreement the administration has negotiated," Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the floor Thursday morning. "This is the deal the House has passed. This is the deal President Trump is waiting [for] and eager to sign into law. This is the deal that every member of this body should support when we vote later this morning."

Yet after railing against the debt and deficit for years, conservatives find the legislation a tough pill to swallow. McConnell and Senate GOP leaders — with help from Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and new Defense Secretary Mark Esper — have been lobbying hard to get a majority of their members to support the legislation after roughly two-thirds of House Republicans opposed the budget deal that was approved by the Democrat-controlled House last week.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has been one of the Republicans targeted by GOP leaders to support the bill. He said after a sustained effort by Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.), he will support the legislation.

“The only person that kept asking me ‘til I said ‘yes’ or ‘no’ was Thune,” Grassley said. He decided late Tuesday to support the proposal.

The bill’s proponents on the Republican side have been touting the increase in spending for defense spending as worth the compromise with Democrats over domestic spending. They say there's no alternative now that the House has left town, and the budget deal is far better than the alternatives of automatic budget cuts or stopgap spending bills.

“We’re going to avoid this sort of nonsense we’ve had in the past with shutdowns and brief continuing resolutions,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who has been advocating for his colleagues to support the legislation. “In the end there will be enough members to do the responsible thing."

Most Senate Democrats are expected to support the legislation, though some liberals and senators running for president seem likely to oppose it. And Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said that the bill does a lot for his state but that he’s concerned that the legislation does nothing to address “long-term fiscal responsibility.”

“I’m having a hard time with that. I really am. There’s a lot of things that help the area. I sure don’t want a shutdown, that’s for sure,” Manchin said.

The Senate will also take up an amendment on Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) amendment to cut and cap spending and balance the budget. That will likely fail to get 60 votes, but will allow conservatives to express their frustrations with the $1 trillion budget deficit.

After passing the budget, the Senate is expected to recess for the summer. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell isn’t taking any chances: He’s told senators to stick around until the vote closes, informing them that the chamber isn’t leaving until something passes to lift the debt ceiling and deal with the budget.