Senate GOP balks at Trump demand to boost defense funding in third reconciliation bill

Senate Republicans say they are in no mood to back President Trump’s demand that Congress use the budget reconciliation process a third time to provide another $350 billion to the Pentagon.

The GOP senators, who just slogged through an overnight 18-hour series of votes last week to pass a $70 billion package funding immigration enforcement operations, say a third process would put their vulnerable GOP colleagues in a tough political position.

There’s strong skepticism within the Senate GOP conference over whether they could even muster 50 votes amid strong public disapproval of the military conflict with Iran and growing concerns over the federal debt and deficits.

Vulnerable Republican incumbents have little appetite for subjecting themselves to another round of tough votes on Democratic amendments designed to fuel political ads in the fall.

“We don’t want to have another vote-a-rama. The last vote-a-rama about broke our backs. It was way too long. We ended up right where we started, and it’s frustrating for our own members,” said a Republican senator, who requested anonymity to discuss Republican reluctance to embrace Trump’s call for a third reconciliation package.

The senator noted that none of the amendments proposed for the last reconciliation package were adopted. Instead, they just highlighted divisions among Republicans over the 90,000-square-foot White House ballroom and Trump’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said he supports more spending for the Defense Department but warns “it’s going to be an enormously heavy lift in this environment to get that done, particularly with just Republican votes.”

Cornyn warned that forcing vulnerable GOP incumbents to run through the gauntlet of another budget reconciliation debate and vote-a-rama will only make their reelection races more difficult.

“A lot of races that shouldn’t be in play are in play,”........

© The Hill