There are two ways around filibusters in the Senate: the so-called nuclear option and reconciliation. The latter is the safer and somewhat easier course, assuming the measure in question qualifies according to the Byrd Rule. President Donald Trump is now leaning into this process on matters ranging from ending the nearly two-month DHS shutdown to increasing the Pentagon’s funding by more than 40% in the next fiscal year. As long as the various proposals pass muster with the Senate Parliamentarian – and, of course, enough of the GOP in Congress to achieve a simple majority – reconciliation can be the key that unlocks almost the entire remaining legislative agenda. And there isn’t much the Democrats can do to stop it.
Scuttling the Shutdown
Since February 14, much of the Department of Homeland Security has technically been in shutdown mode, either suspending operations or working without pay or funding. Democrats released a list of ten demands for reform of ICE and CBP – the two agencies within DHS least affected by the funding fiasco thanks to billions in appropriations through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In the weeks that ensued, President Trump and Republicans went from demanding full funding for the department without any significant changes in policy to offering varying degrees of compromise. But it was all for naught, as congressional Democrats refused to accept anything short of total acquiescence.
Their defiance, however, cost them any progress they might have secured had they accepted some form of compromise. Instead, President Trump and GOP leaders in the House and Senate cut a deal: full funding for all of DHS except for ICE and CBP through a bipartisan bill, then an additional spending package for the excluded agencies pushed through reconciliation.
As Liberty Nation News reported after this plan was announced, it effectively ends the shutdown (well, once the House returns from recess and passes it, of course) without granting any of the policy changes demanded by Democrats. In short, the whole shutdown will have accomplished absolutely nothing for them.
Trump’s Big Ask
But ending the shutdown without caving to Democrats isn’t the only thing the president hopes to accomplish via reconciliation. On Friday, April 3, the White House revealed the blueprint for Trump’s 2027 budget. Trump’s plan would drastically cut domestic projects and increase Pentagon funding by more than 40% – a whopping $1.5 trillion in defense spending. Much of the spending package can be passed without a single Democrat vote in either chamber, assuming the request doesn’t include any “extraneous” provisions – that is, anything that doesn’t directly affect budget outlays or revenues, lies outside the jurisdiction of the Senate Budget Committee, or increases the deficit beyond the budget window. The bill must also be free of any changes to Social Security.
Like the DHS packages, though, there are those among the GOP who aren’t on board. “I’m very wary of voting for excessive spending in defense,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) said in an interview Friday morning. Fiscal hawks aren’t happy about the idea of spending billions on overseas wars, which makes reconciliation difficult. The president can only afford to lose three votes in the Senate and two in the House, assuming all members are present and voting, and the vice president and speaker side with him when it’s time to break a tie.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) also expressed her skepticism of the Trump budget on Friday. “While the Administration proposes a budget, Congress holds the power of the purse,” she told the press, explaining that she didn’t plan to act as a rubber stamp to Trump’s requests.
Then there are the two Kentucky lawmakers – Thomas Massie in the House and Rand Paul in the Senate – who almost never vote in favor of large spending packages from the Trump administration.
A Love-Hate Relationship
Democrats are already using Trump’s reconciliation plans to campaign against their colleagues across the aisle in the run-up to November’s midterms, but a healthy dose of skepticism is warranted here. The truth is that both parties have a love-hate relationship with reconciliation: They each love it when they’re in power and hate it when they aren’t.
President Trump and Republicans used the reconciliation process in 2017 to pass the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, evoking broad tax reform and dropping the corporate tax rate to 21%. In March of 2021, Democrats under President Joe Biden used the reconciliation process to pass the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act without a single Republican vote. Then again, Democrats used the process to pass the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, including approximately $369 billion focused on climate change investments. President Trump and Republicans then used it for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025.
No matter how much each side hates the process when their opponents use it to steamroll right over them, they don’t balk at using it themselves when they get the chance – no matter the cost or the partisan division.
