The Hitchhiker’s Guide to confirming Kash Patel and the marathon Senate voting session to tee up Trump era

The Senate votes late this morning to break a filibuster on the nomination of Kash Patel to run the FBI. 

Senators will vote to confirm him around 1:45 p.m. ET, with the final result due after 2 p.m ET. He will be confirmed along party lines. 

Then the Senate returns to the budget framework to advance parts of President Trump’s policy agenda.

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The Senate began its 50-hour debate on the the budget Tuesday night.

The budget process is lengthy and arduous. It culminates in a marathon vote series – known as a vote-a-rama tonight and through Friday – if not the wee hours of Saturday morning.

The last such vote-a-rama consumed 41 consecutive votes and took more than a day in real time to complete. 

This onerous exercise is all to get to that final product that enables Republicans to bypass Senate filibuster later. However, the proposal must be fiscal in nature and not add to the deficit over a 10-year period.

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Here’s something important to know:

The mechanics just spelled out create nothing more than a shell. This is a legislative “chassis.” BOTH the House and Senate must have this in place to eventually debate substantive and “binding” provisions of legislation down the road – be it border security or massive tax cuts. No “chassis,” then no final bill.

So this is an important phase in moving the President’s agenda, but not the end result. 

House Republicans will try to advance their own plan next week. It focuses more on tax cuts and has the blessing of the President. But the House and Senate must still get on the same page. And so far, they are working at cross purposes.