The Senate adopted a Republicans budget resolution early Thursday after rejecting more than a dozen amendments — mostly from Democrats — designed to put senators on the record on high energy prices and other issues.
Republicans muscled through the blueprint for their new party-line reconciliation bill on a 50-48 vote, taking their first significant step toward approving roughly $70 billion in new funding for immigration enforcement agencies while greasing the skids for action on a separate, bipartisan measure that would fund the rest of the Department of Homeland Security, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The overnight vote series, known as a “vote-a-rama,” marked congressional Democrats’ latest attempt to repeatedly hammer Republicans with tough votes on affordability issues. The war against Iran has raised oil, gasoline and fertilizer prices and spiked inflation, creating an opening for Democrats with just months to go before the midterm elections.
“This will be a reconciliation of contrast, and we are relishing that fight,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said before the votes.
