Congress is on to the next phase of reconciliation after a roller coaster of a night in the House, setting up for a round of negotiations with the Senate as each chamber believes it has the best approach to implementing President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Mike Johnson has about 12 hours to get his conference behind his plan for enacting the president’s sweeping agenda. It’s not looking good.

The speaker insists he’s not changing the budget resolution, which would set parameters for a sweeping bill to address border security, energy and tax policy. If House Democrats are at full attendance, just two GOP “no” votes would sink the resolution.

The Senate early Friday morning adopted a budget resolution that outlines parameters for subsequent legislation to fund border security, immigration enforcement and defense needs.

The budget was adopted on a 52-48 vote, with Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, joining all Democrats in opposition.

The final vote came after a vote-a-rama in which senators could offer unlimited amendments to the budget resolution. The vote-a-rama began just before 7 p.m. Thursday and ended at 4:45 a.m. Friday, lasting almost 10 hours.

The Senate on Friday adopted a budget resolution intended to serve as a blueprint to deliver the first part of President Trump’s agenda. 

Senators voted 52-48 along party lines on the resolution after a marathon overnight voting session. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted against the measure.

The so-called vote-a-rama lasted about 10 hours, as Democrats sought to dial up the heat on Republicans with dozens of amendments needling the party on taxes and Medicaid. 

Congress is struggling to strike a deal to keep the government funded as a looming deadline to prevent a shutdown next month gets closer.

Lawmakers are less than a month away from a mid-March date to pass legislation to prevent a funding lapse — or risk the first shutdown in years. 

“We can’t have precisely the same kind of deal we had before, and we’re trying to work to find some common ground,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said shortly before the House left for a one-week recess this week.

The showdown between House and Senate Republicans is escalating as the two groups barrel ahead with their contrasting strategies to pass President Trump’s legislative agenda — with the upper chamber expected to move this week.

After House Republicans shared a new budget proposal this week, some Democrats began sounding the alarm that Medicaid funding could be significantly impacted by proposed cuts.

Nearly 80 million Americans benefit from the government-run health insurance program, and budget cuts to the program could dramatically reduce access to health care for low-income families.

The Republican Party has been looking to pass spending cuts as a way to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which would add another $4.5 trillion in spending.

Is DOGE all bark and no bite?

Billionaire Elon Musk has walked back a prior claim that his vaunted blue ribbon commission on government bloat and inefficiencies would be able to slash the roughly $6.75 trillion annual federal budget by $2 trillion.

Elon Musk, who U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped to oversee a government cost-cutting effort, acknowledged that his declared goal of cutting $2 trillion in spending from the $6.8 trillion federal budget would be a long shot.

"I think if we try for 2 trillion, we've got a good shot at getting 1," Musk, the world's richest person, said in a discussion on Wednesday with Mark Penn, a political strategist and former pollster. He described the $2 trillion target as a "best-case outcome."