Executive Summary

• The House and Senate Budget Committees have each released a fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget resolutions that, if adopted, would unlock the pathway for reconciliation legislation to implement some of President Trump’s domestic policy agenda.
• The House budget resolution would address border security, energy policies, the 2017 tax cuts, and President Trump’s 2024 campaign tax proposals in “one big, beautiful bill”; it includes reconciliation instructions to 11 House committees that would allow up to $3.3 trillion of new borrowing over the FY 2025 to 2034 budget window.
• The Senate budget resolution would address border security and energy policies, but not tax reform (the Senate intends to do tax reform in a second bill); it includes reconciliation instructions to nine Senate committees that would allow up to $517 billion of borrowing over the FY 2025 to 2034 budget window, as well as instructions to eight House committees that would allow up to $516 billion of new borrowing.
• This insight compares the details of the House and Senate budget resolutions.

The House Budget Resolution

House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington (R-TX) has released his chairman’s mark of the House fiscal year (FY) 2025 budget resolution that, if adopted, would unlock the pathway for reconciliation legislation to implement some of President Trump’s domestic policy agenda. The budget resolution includes reconciliation instructions to 11 committees to either increase or reduce budget deficits by a target amount over the FY 2025 to 2034 budget window. The committees are required to submit their reconciliation measures to the House Budget Committee by March 27, 2025.

It is important to note that the budget’s reconciliation instructions do not prescribe how the committees must achieve the specified budgetary changes. While budget resolutions may assume or even suggest that a committee or committees include specific policies, these suggestions are not binding or enforceable. The budget simply sets dollar targets; the committee or committees decide on the policies within their jurisdictions to meet these targets.

In the aggregate, the instructions in the House budget would allow up to $3.3 trillion of new borrowing – the net effect of $4.8 trillion of deficit increases and $1.5 trillion of deficit reduction. The largest instruction of $4.5 trillion goes to the Ways and Means Committee to craft the tax portion of the reconciliation legislation, which includes an extension of the 2017 tax cuts and the tax proposals put forth by President Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign.

The budget resolution places a $100-billion cap on new spending for the Armed Services Committee, $90 billion for the Homeland Security Committee, and $110 billion for the Judiciary Committee. It also instructs seven committees to craft reconciliation measures that cut spending on net, by $230 billion in the Agriculture Committee, $330 billion in the Education and Workforce Committee, $880 billion in the Energy and Commerce Committee, $1 billion each in the Financial Services and Natural Resources Committees, $50 billion in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and $20 billion in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Reconciliation Instructions in the House FY 2025 Budget Resolution

Committee	Increase or Decrease Deficits?	Reconciliation Instruction
Agriculture	Decrease	-$230 billion
Armed Services	Increase	$100 billion
Education and Workforce	Decrease	-$330 billion
Energy and Commerce	Decrease	-$880 billion
Financial Services	Decrease	-$1 billion
Homeland Security	Increase	$90 billion
Judiciary	Increase	$110 billion
Natural Resources	Decrease	-$1 billion
Oversight and Government Reform	Decrease	-$50 billion
Transportation and Infrastructure	Decrease	-$10 billion
Ways and Means	Increase	$4.5 trillion
Total		$3.3 trillion
Gross Deficit Increases		$4.8 trillion
Gross Deficit Decreases		-$1.5 trillion

Source: House Budget Committee.

In addition, the House budget resolution would increase the statutory debt limit by $4 trillion, from $36.1 trillion to $40.1 trillion. A debt limit increase in reconciliation legislation has been championed by President Trump, though it remains to be seen if it will remain intact as the process moves along.

The budget resolution also includes a policy on mandatory spending that sets a target of $2 trillion of mandatory spending reductions over the FY 2025 to 2034 budget window and stipulates that if the $2-trillion target is not met, the $4.5 trillion reconciliation for the Ways and Means Committee will be reduced to offset the difference.

The Senate Budget Resolution

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has released his chairman’s mark of the Senate’s FY 2025 budget resolution that, if adopted, would unlock the pathway for reconciliation legislation to implement some of President Trump’s domestic policy agenda. Unlike the House, which is aiming to enact the president’s agenda in “one big, beautiful bill,” the Senate is eyeing a two-bill approach: one bill that addresses border security and energy policies and one bill that extends the 2017 tax cuts and includes the tax proposals put forth by President Trump during his 2024 presidential campaign. The budget resolution put forth by Chairman Graham addresses the former.

The Senate budget resolution includes reconciliation instructions to nine Senate committees and eight House committees to either increase or reduce budget deficits by a target amount over the FY 2025 to 2034 budget window. The committees are required to submit their reconciliation measures to their respective chamber’s Budget Committee by March 7, 2025. In the aggregate, the instructions to the Senate committees would allow up to $517 billion of new borrowing, while the instructions to the House committees would allow up to $516 billion of new borrowing.

In the Senate committees, the largest instruction goes to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the Judiciary Committees, which are each instructed to increase deficits by no more than $175 billion over the FY 2025 to 2034 budget window. In addition, the budget resolution places a $150-billion cap on new spending for the Armed Services Committee, $20 billion for the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, and $1 billion for the Environment and Public Works Committee. It also instructs four committees to craft reconciliation measures that cut spending on net, by $1 billion each in the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the Finance Committee, and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee.

In the House committees, the largest instruction goes to the Homeland Security and the Judiciary Committees, which are each instructed to increase deficits by no more than $175 billion over the FY 2025 to 2034 budget window. In addition, the budget resolution places a $150-billion cap on new spending for the Armed Services Committee and $20 billion for the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. It also instructs four committees to craft reconciliation measures that cut spending on net by $1 billion each in the Agriculture Committee, Education and Workforce Committee, Energy and Commerce Committee, and the Natural Resources Committee.

Senate Committee Reconciliation Instructions in the Senate FY 2025 Budget Resolution

Committee	Increase or Decrease Deficits?	Reconciliation Instruction
Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry	Decrease	-$1 billion
Armed Services	Increase	$150 billion
Commerce, Science, and Transportation	Increase	$20 billion
Energy and Natural Resources	Decrease	-$1 billion
Environment and Public Works	Increase	$1 billion
Finance	Decrease	-$1 billion
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions	Decrease	-$1 billion
Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs	Increase	$175 billion
Judiciary	Increase	$175 billion
Total		$517 billion
Gross Deficit Increases		$521 billion
Gross Deficit Decreases		-$4 billion

Source: Senate Budget Committee.

House Committee Reconciliation Instructions in the Senate FY 2025 Budget Resolution

Committee	Increase or Decrease Deficits?	Reconciliation Instruction
Agriculture	Decrease	-$1 billion
Armed Services	Increase	$150 billion
Education and Workforce	Decrease	-$1 billion
Energy and Commerce	Decrease	-$1 billion
Natural Resources	Decrease	-$1 billion
Homeland Security	Increase	$175 billion
Judiciary	Increase	$175 billion
Transportation and Infrastructure	Increase	$20 billion
Total		$516 billion
Total Deficit Increases		$520 billion
Total Deficit Decreases		-$4 billion

Source: Senate Budget Committee.

Unlike the House budget, the Senate budget does not include an increase in the statutory debt limit, nor does it include a target for mandatory spending reductions.

It also appears that the House and Senate budget resolutions were crafted against a current law baseline, rather than a current policy baseline. There was much debate over which baseline policymakers should use for measuring the cost of tax cut extensions and other elements of President Trump’s agenda.

The Bottom Line

As the House and Senate Budget Committees work through markups of their budget resolutions, it is likely that the chambers will ultimately adopt dramatically different budget resolutions. If so, these differences will need to be resolved in conference or amendments between the House and Senate. Only time will tell.