President Donald Trump called on Senate Republicans Thursday to use their final weeks in power to pass $350 billion in defense spending — moving to jump-start legislative action “IMMEDIATELY” on a party-line funding request that has gone unanswered for months.
“Our Military must be strong, powerful, and respected,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “Republicans must deliver for our Warriors. The Democrats never will. The time is NOW.”
The post comes as Republicans face scant time on Capitol Hill to make progress on key priorities before Democrats assume the big new majorities they won in last week’s midterms. Democratic leaders in both parties are signaling they will seek to end the Iran war — possibly by blocking funding as soon as next month.
But Trump’s previous calls to enact massive new infusions of Pentagon funding have gone unheeded in the Senate, where GOP lawmakers have split over how to structure a party-line spending bill.
A House-passed budget blueprint that includes Iran war funding has stalled in the Senate for nearly four months but even that legislation provides only $60 billion for the Pentagon — a fraction of the funding Trump is asking for.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said this week he remained “open” to pursuing a party-line funding bill under the budget reconciliation process but also said he believed the House needed to act first.
“We’ll see if there’s a political appetite to do it,” he told reporters Monday. “It takes a lot of time, as you know, and … to get all this other stuff done.”
Thune and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the incoming House minority leader, discussed the prospects for reconciliation during a closed-door meeting Wednesday, the first time they had met in person since winning their respective leadership elections.
Senate Republicans discussed trying to pass a new reconciliation bill during an hourslong meeting ahead of their leadership election Tuesday and effectively agreed to try to see if they could find a path, several senators said after the meeting.
But some GOP senators, including party leaders, have been skeptical that there are the votes to pass another party-line spending bill amid divisions over what should be included in it.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Budget Committee, said Republicans’ best shot would be to keep any bill narrowly focused on only a couple of items.
“I think we ought to actually try to get a result, and the worst we can do is lose,” Kennedy said in an interview. “I don’t think, to be fair, that leadership agrees with me.”
Senate Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said Thursday that he believed it was “good” that the president was engaged and that the request matches what he’s heard privately from top Pentagon officials. But he would not say if Republicans have the votes.
Thune said Wednesday Republicans would have to make a decision before both chambers leave for a Thanksgiving break next week, noting the lengthy process required to enact a reconciliation bill. Johnson said he wants a budget blueprint on the Senate floor by then.
Prior to Trump’s posting Thursday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in an interview that he wanted to see a “broad reconciliation bill move in the lame duck.”
“We started that process. We passed it through the House. Hopefully, now that the elections are over, the Senate gets back to it,” Scalise said Thursday.
Also speaking before Trump leveled his demand, Speaker Mike Johnson pointed fingers at Senate Democrats Thursday for having “obstructed everything” — though it is GOP divisions that have left the chamber sitting on the House-passed budget blueprint, a key prerequisite for the party-line reconciliation process.
“This is a two-chamber legislative body, so we need the Senate to do their work,” Johnson said.
Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
