Budget Committee Vote Determines $72 Billion Immigration Package

Why it Matters

The Senate Budget Committee's business meeting on S.Con.Res.33 on May 20 is the procedural linchpin between a House-passed budget resolution and the Senate's ability to move a roughly $72 billion border security and immigration enforcement package to a floor vote. Without the committee advancing this concurrent resolution, the reconciliation machinery that Republicans have built around immigration funding stalls. Billions of dollars for ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) hang on whether the Budget Committee can move the resolution forward this week.

How the Resolution Got Here

S.Con.Res.33 passed the Senate on April 23 by a 50-48 vote and cleared the House on April 29 by a 215-211 margin, with one member voting present. The resolution sets the congressional budget for fiscal year 2026 and establishes budgetary levels through fiscal year 2035. Beyond the top-line numbers, it carries reconciliation instructions directing four committees, including the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, to submit legislation increasing the deficit by no more than $70 billion over the fiscal years 2026-2035 window. The deadline for those submissions was May 15.

On May 4, Senate Republicans on the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees released the text of a nearly $72 billion reconciliation bill, the direct legislative output of those reconciliation instructions. The package included more than $38 billion for ICE and more than $26 billion for CBP. The Congressional Budget Office scored the legislation around the same time, finding the Judiciary Committee portion alone would directly appropriate $39.2 billion in 2026 for immigration-related agencies.

What the Resolution Actually Does

The budget resolution recommends levels for federal revenues, new budget authority, budget outlays, deficits, and public debt for each fiscal year from 2026 through 2035. It establishes major functional spending categories and creates reserve funds that allow committee allocations to be adjusted to accommodate reconciliation legislation, specifically including legislation tied to immigration enforcement and border security.

It also sets budget enforcement procedures, including budget points of order in the Senate. Those procedural guardrails matter because they shape what can and cannot be included in any reconciliation bill that flows from the resolution's instructions.

The resolution has no cosponsors. It was introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who chairs the Senate Budget Committee and will preside over Wednesday's business meeting at 608 Dirksen Senate Office Building.

The Reconciliation 2.0 Context

This resolution is often described as a second, targeted budget resolution, distinct from the broader House-passed "One Big Beautiful Bill." Where that bill attempts a sweeping rewrite of tax and spending policy, S.Con.Res.33 is narrower in its reconciliation scope, capped at $70 billion in deficit increases and focused on the committees with jurisdiction over immigration and homeland security.

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has noted the resolution allows up to $140 billion in total allowable deficit increases across both committee pairs. The Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees were expected to hold markups the week of May 19 on their respective portions of the reconciliation bill, with the plan to combine the sections into a single package for a floor vote. The Budget Committee's action on May 20 fits directly into that timeline.

The Congressional Research Service updated its analysis of the resolution on April 30, providing detailed guidance on the reconciliation directives and deficit implications.

The Committee and the Vote Math

The Senate Budget Committee includes 20 members, split between Republicans and Democrats. On the Republican side, the committee includes Sens. Graham, Rick Scott, Roger Marshall, Mike Crapo, Ron Johnson, Chuck Grassley, Lindsey Graham, John Kennedy, Mike Lee, Pete Ricketts, and Bernie Moreno. Democratic members include Jeff Merkley as ranking member, alongside Sens. Patty Murray, Ron Wyden, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Chris Van Hollen, Ben Ray Luján, Sheldon Whitehouse, Bernie Sanders, and Alex Padilla.

The party-line votes in both chambers on the resolution itself, 50-48 in the Senate and 215-211 in the House, suggest Democrats are uniformly opposed. That means Graham will need to hold his Republican members together to advance the resolution out of committee.

What Comes Next

If the Budget Committee advances S.Con.Res.33 on May 20, the Senate moves closer to a floor vote on the combined $72 billion immigration and border security reconciliation package. The Judiciary and Homeland Security Committee markups scheduled for the same week would produce the legislative text that gets merged into a single bill. The Budget Committee's action is the procedural prerequisite that makes that floor vote possible under reconciliation rules, which require only a simple majority and are not subject to the filibuster.

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