The Senate was on track to pass Republicans’ budget plan on a straight party-line vote sometime early Friday morning.
But first, it was time for a well-worn parliamentary ritual: the hourslong marathon of votes on proposals that will never become law (and were never intended to) known as a “vote-a-rama.” In a chamber where the average age is 65, the all-nighter brought senators to the floor for a binge of procedural motions and floor speeches delivered to a mostly empty chamber that served to frame a feud between Republicans and Democrats over the nation’s priorities and how federal money should be spent.
As senators slowly made their way into the chamber late Thursday afternoon, it was clear that Washington was in for a long night. Aides hauled thick briefing folders in one hand and caffeinated beverages in another.
Republicans were there to make the case for their budget resolution, which must be adopted to allow them to push through President Trump’s ambitious agenda. Democrats came primed to build their public case against Mr. Trump’s plans, and begin laying the groundwork to exact a political price from Republicans for supporting them.
“This is going to be a long, drawn-out fight,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, said as members of his party lined up to offer amendments to fight Mr. Trump’s fiscal agenda. “Democrats are going to hold the floor all day long and all night long to expose how Republicans want to cut taxes for billionaires while gutting things Americans care about most.”
Passing a budget resolution is a key step toward enacting Mr. Trump’s fiscal agenda, a process that has been complicated by competing strategies among House and Senate Republicans about the best way to accomplish the president’s priorities.