Morning Report — Senators muscle forward in the budget fight

In today’s issue:  

• Senate split along party lines to adopt budget
• Vance: Enacting president’s agenda will “take time”
• Pentagon budget cuts or reallocations?
• Treasury secretary, Chinese counterpart set to talk

Congress is giving President Trump two possible options to anchor his agenda in a budget.

With House GOP leadership still working on their single “big, beautiful” budget bill ahead of a March 14 government funding deadline, Senate Republicans plowed ahead with their own, two-bill budget plan.

The Senate this morning adopted its budget resolution during an extended, 10 hour “vote-a-rama,” voting 52-48 along party lines. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted against the measure.

The vote came after the upper chamber on Thursday afternoon kicked off an overnight marathon voting session, known as a vote-a-rama, in Senate Republicans’ quest to clear a key hurdle on the path to delivering Trump a major legislative win in his first year back in office. The term refers to a blitz of successive votes on amendments to the budget resolution, which Democrats oppose, and which will pave the way for passing Trump’s agenda on border security, defense and energy. 

The overnight exercise was not without political cost. Senate Republicans allowed Democrats to offer dozens of amendments — which faced overwhelming GOP rebuke — as the minority party seeks to pin GOP senators on supporting cuts to safety net programs and tax perks for the wealthy.

“This budget resolution is a complete game changer when it comes to securing our border and making our military more lethal. It will allow President Trump to fulfill the promises he made to the American people — a very big deal,” Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement after the vote. “I hope the House can pass one big bill that meets President Trump’s priorities. But this approach provides money that we needed yesterday to continue the momentum on securing our border, enforcing our immigration laws, and rebuilding our military. Time is of the essence.”

Not so fast: The Senate plan has one major detractor — the president. As Republicans work toward making Trump’s 2017 tax cut law permanent, their strategies are diverging. The Senate wants to address taxes in a separate piece of legislation, but Trump wants trillions of dollars in tax cuts rolled into the budget plan itself. So do Republicans in the lower chamber. The president earlier this week gave his approval to the House’s single-bill strategy, bolstering Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has vowed to release a blueprint next week.

What happens now? The Senate’s plan is likely a fallback. A budget can only pass if GOP lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol can rally around one strategy. But Republican senators, led by Majority Leader John Thune (S.D.) and Graham remain undeterred. In their race with the House, Senate GOP members are largely pushing for whichever item they are able to pass. They also see value in going through the two-bill exercise to keep the pressure on their colleagues in the lower chamber.

“I’m for whatever can get the 218 [votes] in the House and 51 in the Senate,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said about those concerns on Thursday. “What we’ve been doing in the Senate has been an impetus for the House to take more action.”

The Senate on Thursday also confirmed Kash Patel to serve as the head of the FBI, approving a pick with a string of controversial statements who has been accused by Democrats of directing a purge of bureau employees. Patel was confirmed in a 51-49 vote. Two Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), voted against Patel’s confirmation.

▪ The Hill: Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on Thursday, his 83rd birthday, that he will not seek reelection in 2026. McConnell was the longest-serving party leader in the Senate. 

▪ The New York Times: The battle for McConnell’s Senate seat is already on.

SMART TAKE with NewsNation’s BLAKE BURMAN:

I interviewed Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins last night and it was pretty clear he had a message for the roughly 18 million living veterans in this country.  

“We're not cutting critical health care. We're not cutting health care benefits,” he told me. He also suggested the VA will strengthen certain services.  

The department has cut about 1,000 jobs under the new administration. That’s a fraction of a workforce that has roughly 470,000 employees. Some Democrats say they’re concerned, and you have to imagine there are others asking questions about what comes next. However, what stood out to me when I was interviewing the secretary was his need to defend his agency, given he’s only been in the post for two weeks.  

Burman hosts “The Hill” weeknights, 6p/5c on NewsNation.

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:

▪ O! Canada defeated the USA in hockey’s 4 Nations Faceoff tournament 3-2 in overtime Thursday in what turned out to be a ratings bonanza and proxy for Canadians to protest Trump’s “51st state” jabs. The president phoned the U.S. team before the game to wish players good luck.

▪ New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said Thursday she won’t remove New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) from office. 

▪ Measles infections are spreading in Texas, New Mexico and Georgia. Additional outbreaks are anticipated. Here’s why experts say the situation was inevitable and why physicians urge parents and their children to get vaccinated.

LEADING THE DAY

© The Associated Press | Manuel Balce Ceneta 

“TAKES TIME”: Trump will address an annual gathering of conservatives on Saturday near Washington, but Vice President Vance was Thursday’s kickoff headliner at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He presented an upbeat assessment of the administration’s initial month in office and the path ahead.

A GOP reconciliation budget measure that would embody Trump’s policy agenda? The vice president predicted Congress will clear a bill by May or June and heed the stated preference of the president and House Republicans for bundling tax cuts, immigration changes and spending priorities into a single package. On Thursday, however, Senate Republicans spent ten hours on a two-bill strategy as a backup plan.

“It’s going well. It’s early, right? This stuff takes time to put together,” said Vance, who has become a behind-the-scenes Capitol Hill lobbyist for the president’s druthers.

At the mention of his controversial speech last week during the annual Munich Security Conference, Vance responded to CPAC applause: “I’m glad you guys like it. Not everybody liked it.” European leaders were taken aback when Vance accused them of censorship, praised Germany’s far-right party and suggested the security threat he sees is “the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values.”

▪ The Hill: During CPAC, Jan. 6 defendants who were pardoned by Trump are being greeted as heroes with star status. 

▪ The Hill: To succeed term-limited Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), Trump on Thursday endorsed Florida Republican Rep. Byron Donalds “should he decide to run” in next year’s gubernatorial contest. Donalds was elected to the House in 2016.

▪ The Hill: Progressives are struggling to stem the bleeding after a brutal year. “I don’t think there’s a single human, including myself, that honestly knows what to do next,” said one longtime Democratic strategist.

▪ The Associated Press: Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg (D), a resident of Traverse City, Mich., is said to be mulling possible bids for a Michigan Senate seat next year or the White House in 2028. His decision will have huge implications for Democrats.

WHERE AND WHEN

• The House will convene briefly at 3:30 p.m. 
  
• The Senate early today finished up budget votes for the week.
  
• The president will speak to governors during an 11 a.m. event in the State Dining Room. He will have lunch with the vice president at 1 p.m. at the White House. Trump, in the Oval Office, will participate in the swearing-in of Howard Lutnick as Commerce secretary. The president will sign executive orders at 3:30 p.m.

ZOOM IN

© The Associated Press | Manuel Balce Ceneta 

DEFENSE HAWKS are pushing back at news the Pentagon ordered senior military leaders to plan to cut 8 percent from the defense budget in each of the next five years. The move — ordered in a Tuesday memo first reported by The Washington Post — would seek to shave off roughly $350 billion from Defense Department coffers at a time when GOP lawmakers want to add $100 billion into the annual defense spending bill, setting the Trump administration on a collision course with Congress. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed Pentagon officials to find about $50 billion in the Biden administration’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal that can be redirected to new priorities. Funds should be moved from “so-called ‘climate change’ and other woke programs” and "excessive bureaucracy” to Trump’s priorities, such as securing the border, building an “Iron Dome” missile defense for the United States and ending DEI programs, according to a Pentagon statement.

The Hill: Democrats sound the alarm over what they see as “indiscriminate” Pentagon spending cuts.

CHAINSAW MAN: Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) adviser Elon Musk added theater to his CV Thursday when he strutted onstage hoisting a shiny red chainsaw, dressed in a black hat and sunglasses, during CPAC near Washington. The crowd applauded. Music swelled. The chainsaw was not running. 

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday it is “unfortunate” that DOGE has been “lampooned and attacked the way it has.” The secretary sidestepped a Bloomberg News question about the inflationary risks of Trump’s enthusiasm for proposed dividend checks paid to taxpayers from federal savings identified by Musk’s team. “Everything that Trump’s administration is doing will be disinflationary,” the secretary said during an interview.

Bloomberg News: The United States is a “long way” from boosting longer-term debt sales, Bessent said.

FEDERAL LAYOFFS: The Trump administration’s mass firings of federal employees can proceed, a federal judge told government employee unions Thursday, citing the requirement in law that unions bring challenges involving federal workers to the Federal Labor Relations Authority rather than a federal district court.