Graham: Use budget reconciliation to bypass filibuster and pass border security legislation

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of President-elect Trump’s strongest allies in the Senate, is calling on Republicans to advance ambitious economic and border security legislation through Congress if they manage to retain control of the House.

“If we hold the House, we will hit the ground running on budget reconciliation — the best vehicle to jump start the economy and help secure the border,” Graham posted on the social platform X.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Senate GOP Whip John Thune (S.D.) and incoming Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) have spent the past several months laying the groundwork for a budget reconciliation package to extend the Trump-era tax cuts, which are due to expire at the end of next year.

Under the Senate’s special budget reconciliation rules, the party in control of both chambers of Congress can advance legislation through the Senate with support from a simple majority of senators, instead of the 60 votes usually needed to pass controversial legislation.

But the chamber’s rules require that any proposals in such a package either have a nontangential impact on federal spending, revenue, or the deficit and debt.

Senate Republicans have been quietly debating amongst themselves over how far to broaden the scope of any such bill beyond a straightforward extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Trump’s biggest legislative achievement.

Graham on Wednesday weighed in by pushing legislation to secure the border.

But some Republicans worry that it’s a risky strategy because the Senate parliamentarian could rule that border security legislation does not qualify for special protections. They fear that adding border provisions to a tax-relief bill could wind up derailing the extension of the Trump tax cuts.  

The parliamentarian, Elizabeth McDonough, ruled in September 2021 that a Democratic proposal to create a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants did not qualify as a reform primarily intended to affect spending and revenues, even though it certainly would have had a budgetary impact.

On the economic front, Republicans will have to decide how much additional tax relief to tack onto an extension of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Trump during the campaign proposed $8 trillion in tax cuts over the next decade, which he would offset partially with $900 billion in revenue from reversing Biden-era clean-energy tax breaks.

Trump has also proposed $4 trillion in new tariffs, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.

McConnell told reporters Wednesday that Senate Republicans would keep in place the filibuster for all other legislation that doesn't move under the budget reconciliation process. 

“I think one of the most gratifying results of the Senate becoming Republican, the filibuster will stand, there won’t be any new states admitted to give a partisan advantage to the other side, and we’ll quit beating up the Supreme Court every time we don’t like a decision they make,” McConnell said at a press conference.

That means whatever parts of Trump's agenda get left out of the budget bill will fall to a Democratic filibuster in the Senate.