Congressional Republicans push ahead with $95 billion budget plan to fund Iran war

Republicans in the US Congress forged ahead on Thursday with a $95 billion budget plan to meet President Donald Trump’s demands for new defense funding for the Iran war, farm assistance and a sweeping overhaul of voting requirements ahead of the November midterm elections.

A Republican-controlled budget panel in the US House of Representatives approves the resolution, clearing it for a full House vote as early as next week. If passed, it would pave the way for a special budget reconciliation bill intended to clear the Senate with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes needed for most legislation in that chamber.

That could enable Republicans, who hold 53 of the Senate’s 100 seats, to bypass Democratic opposition and advance legislation directing $60 billion for defense, $13 billion for intelligence, $12 billion for agriculture, and $10 billion to enact Trump’s signature voter ID bill, the SAVE America Act, over the next decade. But it was too early to say whether a House reconciliation bill would qualify under strict Senate rules or even garner a simple majority.

“We’re not going to get any help from our Democrat colleagues to do what I believe are… critical things,” budget committee chair Jodey Arrington, a Texas Republican, tells his fellow panel members, who approved the resolution for full House consideration in a 20-14 party-line vote.