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The Senate Budget Committee voted along party lines on Tuesday, May 20, to advance S.Con.Res.33, the fiscal year 2026 budget resolution that carries the reconciliation instructions for a $72 billion immigration enforcement and border security package. The 12-10 committee vote, with all Democrats opposing, moves the resolution to the Senate floor and clears the procedural path for the actual appropriation text to follow.
S.Con.Res.33 was introduced by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. It passed the Senate on April 23 by a 50-48 margin and cleared the House on April 29 by 215-211, with one member voting present. The resolution establishes federal budget levels through fiscal year 2035 and, critically, instructs four Senate committees — including the Judiciary Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — to produce legislation increasing the deficit by no more than $70 billion over the fiscal years 2026–2035 window.
From Instructions to Legislative Text
The Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees released text of their respective portions of the reconciliation bill on May 4. Combined, the two sections direct approximately $72 billion toward immigration enforcement agencies: more than $38 billion for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and more than $26 billion for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The Congressional Budget Office scored the Judiciary Committee portion separately, finding it would directly appropriate $39.2 billion in fiscal year 2026 for immigration-related agencies alone. The CBO’s scoring of the full package is expected to inform the floor debate but does not need to be completed before the budget resolution advances.
Under reconciliation rules, the Senate can adopt the budget resolution and then consider the actual appropriation text without facing a filibuster. That process — budget resolution first, then legislative text — is what Tuesday’s committee vote enables.
The Committee’s Role and the Vote Math
The Senate Budget Committee has 20 members: 12 Republicans and 8 Democrats. Tuesday’s vote fell along strict party lines, reflecting uniform Democratic opposition to the reconciliation instructions that would fund aggressive expansion of detention and removal operations. No Democratic amendments were adopted in committee.
The budget resolution is not the final word on spending — it is the procedural key that unlocks the Senate floor for a simple-majority vote on the actual immigration appropriation. Without this step, the $72 billion package cannot reach the floor under reconciliation protection.
Chairman Graham presided over the business meeting at 608 Dirksen Senate Office Building. The resolution instructs the Senate Judiciary Committee to produce its portion of the reconciliation bill by May 15 — a deadline already met with the May 4 text release — and the Homeland Security Committee to do the same. Those two committee submissions are then combined into a single package for Senate floor consideration.
Reconciliation 2.0: Narrower Scope, Higher Stakes
S.Con.Res.33 is commonly described as a second, targeted budget resolution — distinct from the broader House-passed reconciliation measure colloquially known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” which carries a substantially larger price tag across tax and spending policy. S.Con.Res.33 is capped at roughly $70 billion in deficit-increasing instructions and focused narrowly on committees with jurisdiction over immigration and homeland security.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has noted that the two parallel reconciliation efforts — the targeted immigration package here and the broader House measure — could together allow up to $140 billion in total allowable deficit increases across committee pairs. That combined figure is likely to feature in floor debate and in political messaging ahead of the November midterm elections.
What Comes Next
With S.Con.Res.33 advanced out of committee, the Senate is expected to move toward a floor vote on the combined $72 billion immigration enforcement package before the end of May. The markup sessions held the week of May 19 in the Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees produced the legislative text that will now be merged and prepared for floor consideration.
The reconciliation process shields the package from a Senate filibuster, meaning it can advance with a simple majority — and the current 53-47 Republican majority is sufficient to pass it if no senators cross party lines. All eyes are on the handful of Republicans who have previously expressed concerns about deficit impacts, as the final floor vote will test whether the $72 billion ceiling holds.
Constitutional researchers and budget experts note that the concurrent resolution does not present a veto target for the President — it is a congressional budget document, not an appropriations bill. The actual appropriations, once passed by both chambers and signed, would trigger the funding flows to ICE and CBP that the reconciliation package envisions.
The Congressional Research Service updated its analysis of the resolution on April 30, providing detailed guidance on the reconciliation directives and their deficit implications. That document is expected to serve as a reference point for senators requesting clarification on the scope and limits of the reconciliation instructions before the floor vote.