Sahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.
WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee announced plans Wednesday to craft a major Republican-only bill that funds conservative priorities like immigration enforcement, military spending during the Iran war and new election rules.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he will “expeditiously move” to write the budget “reconciliation” process for the measure, which allows the Republican-led Senate to bypass the 60-vote filibuster rule and cut Democrats out of the action. It’s the same procedure they used to pass Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” last year. Graham said the project has the support of President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “The purpose of the second reconciliation bill is to make sure there is adequate funding to secure our homeland and to support our men and women in the military who are fighting so bravely,” Graham said in a statement. Republicans plan to fund parts of the Department of Homeland Security — namely, ICE and deportation operations — that are excluded from impending bipartisan negotiations to end the partial government shutdown that's causing long airport lines. They also plan to use the legislation to advance portions of the SAVE America Act, the Trump-endorsed bill to impose stricter voting laws across the country. Graham said he sees “many opportunities to improve voter integrity through reconciliation.” “President Trump and Leader Thune are right to push for a second reconciliation bill to address the threats we face and keep our elections secure and fair,” Graham added. Thune told reporters Tuesday, “We just came out of a luncheon where this was discussed, and I think there’s a lot of support for a budget reconciliation bill.” Republican leaders see it as their best option to placate Trump’s demands to pass the election measure. But the reconciliation process is heavily restricted to provisions about taxes and spending. And Democrats can appeal to the parliamentarian, the in-house referee, to strip out provisions that don’t comply with those strict rules. As a result, the sponsor of the SAVE America Act, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said it’s “essentially impossible” to pass the bill that way. “There are many things the Senate could pass with a simple majority using the procedure known as ‘budget reconciliation.’ The SAVE America Act is *not* one of them,” Lee wrote on X. Asked by NBC News whether Republicans will abide by the parliamentarian’s advice on provisions from the SAVE America Act, Thune said they intend to respect it. “That’s an iterative process and a back-and-forth, sometimes trading back different ideas to see what works,” Thune said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. “But obviously, the parliamentarian has a role to play in that process. And in the past, we have respected it. And I would expect we would do that.” Ignoring her rulings would amount to a back-door nuke of the 60-vote filibuster, which Republicans insist they won’t do. “If you want to shove the SAVE Act into reconciliation then have at it. We’re going to fight you tooth and nail throughout the reconciliation process, every step of the way,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday on the floor. “You’re going to find it very difficult to jam massive changes to the American election system ... by using a process that was never designed for that purpose.” Democrats feel optimistic they can successfully challenge election provisions that resemble the SAVE America Act. “There’s certainly the ability to get ‘something’ done in reconciliation, but it may look like Swiss cheese by the time Elizabeth is done with it,” said Charlie Ellsworth, a former legislative aide to Schumer who worked on reconciliation in the Biden era. The path will be arduous, given that it is subject to unlimited amendments and the need to win over nearly every member of the narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate. Trump's big, beautiful bill passed the Senate by a single vote. Apart from ICE funding, Republicans expect to pursue funding for Trump's war with Iran; the Pentagon reportedly wants $200 billion or more. While the White House hasn’t formally settled on that number, any war supplemental legislation could struggle to get votes from Democrats, who call it an unjustified war of choice, so reconciliation may be the only way to do it. Even some key Republicans have reservations about another major party-line bill. “We had a conversation about it,” said Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who sits on the Budget Committee that will oversee the process. “I’m interested in it, but I think it’s hard to do.” “I don’t want it where it’s going to have a whole bunch of wasteful spending,” he said, adding that the biggest challenge will be to “keep it focused” and not let it continually grow. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chair of the Appropriations Committee, said she doesn’t believe that using reconciliation is a “good approach” to funding parts of DHS. In the House, Republicans are divided about the effort. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., welcomed it, saying: “I’m glad to know the Senate is interested in reconciliation 2.0.” “We need do that. It’s an important legislative tool,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday. “We already had a set of priorities we’re working on in the House. And it is possible that the defense supplemental will be a part of that package, but we don’t yet have the details.” But a senior Republican on the House Appropriations Committee doubted that another expansive reconciliation bill could pass through the narrow 217-214 majority, where the GOP can only afford one defection to pass it without Democrats. “I don’t see how we get the votes,” said the lawmaker. At the annual House Republicans retreat in Florida this month, Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, poured cold water on the idea. “I would love to do reconciliation 2,” Smith said. “I would also love to look like Brad Pitt.” The speaker said he has since begun calling Smith “Brad.”
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