Morning Report — Senators muscle forward in the budget fight

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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.

👉Trump has mused about privatizing the nation’s independent, 250-year-old U.S. Postal Service, which has more than 600,000 career employees and handles 44 percent of the world's total mail volume. The president is expected to issue an executive order as soon as this week to absorb the USPS into the Commerce Department after first firing the postal service’s governing board, The Washington Post reports. Litigation is expected. Congressional Democrats are critical.

“Privatizing the Postal Service is an attack on Americans’ access to critical information, benefits and life-saving medical care,” Rep. Gerry Connolly (Va.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Accountability Committee, told The Post. “It is clear that Trump and his cronies value lining their own pockets more than the lives and connection of the American public.”

The IRS purged 6,700 probationary employees on Thursday during tax filing season. More than 5,000 of those fired were auditors and collection staff dealing with tax compliance issues. Republicans placed the IRS in the party’s political crosshairs after Democrats backed an $80 billion funding boost for the agency in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Trump’s goal is government efficiency, his economic adviser said.

▪ The Hill: Democrats on a House panel launched a probe into Musk’s role as a special government employee working with the White House.

▪ The Hill: The administration is violating a court order to temporarily unfreeze federal funding for assistance abroad, a federal judge ruled Thursday. He declined to hold the administration in contempt and instead restated the court’s order to release the aid.

▪ The Hill: The president will travel to Fort Knox to inspect the nation’s gold reserves as part of the administration’s hunt for waste, fraud and abuse, he told governors Thursday during an event. Fort Knox is audited annually, according to the Treasury Department, but the president has been encouraged by Musk to find out. “We’re going to open up the doors. I’m going to see if we have gold there. Did anybody steal the gold in Fort Knox?” he said. (Trump’s speeches often include a line about America’s “golden age” under his leadership.)

▪ The Hill: The administration this week moved to roll back decades of environmental regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act.

ELSEWHERE

© The Associated Press | Andy Wong

China is stepping in where the U.S. departs. With wide-scale cuts to U.S. foreign aid under the Trump administration, China is stepping in to fill the vacuum. Many of the international aid groups seeing their funding being cut operate in places like Southeast Asia and Africa, where the U.S. is actively vying with China for economic and political influence. Now, there is evidence that China is muscling in.

Bessent will hold a call with Chinese officials today, where he is expected to urge his counterparts to “rebalance the economy” as he paves the way for an eventual meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump on Wednesday told reporters he expects to host Xi in Washington but did not mention a timeline. Trump and Xi last spoke just before Trump took office to discuss issues including TikTok, trade and Taiwan.

▪ NPR: As the U.S. steps back from global health, what role will China play?

▪ The New York Times: China’s foreign minister on Thursday defended South Africa’s effort to promote solidarity, equality and sustainability at Group of 20 gatherings this year, even as Secretary of State Marco Rubio boycotted the first high-level meetings because of that focus.

One of the four bodies handed over from Gaza to Israel on Thursday does not include a hostage, the Israel Defense Forces said, calling it a "very serious violation" by Hamas. Hamas released what it said were the remains of Shiri Bibas and her two young children. But none of the returned bodies were a match for Bibas, the military said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed revenge today for what he described as a “cruel and malicious violation” of the ceasefire. The incident has thrown the future of the fragile ceasefire into question, as six more living hostages are scheduled to be released Saturday.

Ukrainians are feeling a mix of betrayal and defiance as they respond to verbal attacks from Trump against their wartime president, Volodymyr Zelensky. Desperately reliant on U.S. military support, Ukrainian officials are pushing the boundaries of diplomacy, denouncing Trump’s rhetoric while seeking to preserve the critical alliance with Washington, inside and outside the White House. And they’re imploring Europe to make itself relevant in fast-moving developments between the U.S. and Russia.

“It is painful, it’s not easy, it’s not easy to process,” Kira Rudik, member of the Ukrainian parliament and leader of the opposition Golos party, said of Trump’s remarks.

A planned news conference after talks between Zelensky and Trump’s Ukraine envoy, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, was canceled Thursday amid growing tensions. Ukrainian officials appeared to be seeking to calm the waters during Kellogg’s visit Thursday, though it was not immediately clear how his meeting with Zelensky went.

Writing on Telegram after the meeting, Zelensky said their conversation was “good … with lots of details.”

As tensions rise, the U.S. is refusing to co-sponsor a draft United Nations resolution marking three years since the invasion of Ukraine that backs Ukraine's territorial integrity and again demands Russia withdraw its troops, Reuters reports, in a potential stark shift by Ukraine's most powerful Western ally. Washington has also objected to a phrase in a statement the Group of Seven nations planned to issue next week that would condemn Russian aggression.

Meanwhile, Bessent told Bloomberg Television that Russia could win some relief from U.S. sanctions based on its willingness to negotiate an end to its war in Ukraine.

▪ The New York Times: In private remarks on Russia, Rubio tries to reassure Europeans. European officials were not sure what to make of the secretary of state’s measured assessment of Washington’s apparent pivot toward Moscow.

▪ Politico: The Trump administration is leaky with intel. Allies still have to work with it.

As Germany prepares for Sunday elections, Friedrich Merz, the man favored to be the country’s next chancellor, is promising a tougher Germany. A Christian Democrat and committed trans-Atlanticist, the conservative politician has been considered a potentially better match for Trump than the current chancellor, Social Democrat Olaf Scholz. Merz is expected to lead a foreign policy more aligned with Trump’s ideas about Europe taking responsibility for its own defense.

“We see in America a president who admires autocratic systems and rides roughshod over all kinds of norms,” he said recently, and a “vice president who tells us how to run our democracy.”

▪ The Washington Post: How Musk used X to amplify Germany’s far-right ahead of the election.

▪ CNN: Young voters are powering the rise of Germany’s far-right AfD party.

OPINION

■ The far right is rising in the land of “never again,” by Jan Böhmermann, guest contributor, The New York Times.

■ Whole Hog Politics: Democrats learn the limits of resistance, by Chris Stirewalt, political editor, The Hill.

THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Congratulations to this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners! We asked about winter illnesses plaguing humans, birds and other creatures and the dreaded flu.

Here are the puzzlers who were very much in the pink (and went 4/4): Amanda Fisher, Chuck Schoenenberger, Jenessa Wagner, Brian Hogan, Linda L. Field, William Cronin, Harry Strulovici, Jess Elger, Rick Schmidtke, Lynn Gardner, Stan Wasser, Pam Manges, Lou Tisler, Robert Bradley, Arturo Jessel, Martha Jordan, John Trombetti, Steve James, Sari Wisch, Luther Berg, Savannah Petracca, Carmine Petracca and Mark Roeddiger.

Former President Woodrow Wilson contracted influenza while on a diplomatic trip in Paris and suffered hallucinations. He eventually recovered to return to the U.S. while keeping his illness a secret.

Pope Francis was hospitalized this week in Rome with double pneumonia.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture conceded it should not have fired some of its avian influenza response specialists over the weekend as part of the administration’s cost-cutting.

The flu season is bad this year amid declining vaccination rates in the U.S. for children and adults. About 45 percent of Americans received an influenza vaccine for the season, according to news headlines and data through Feb. 1.

Stay Engaged

We want to hear from you! Email: Alexis Simendinger (asimendinger@thehill.com) and Kristina Karisch (kkarisch@thehill.com). Follow us on social platform X: (@asimendinger and @kristinakarisch) and suggest this newsletter to friends!

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