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U.S. Senate to move ahead on budget process overhauling immigration, border security • Louisiana Illuminator

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lailluminator.com – Jennifer Shutt – 2025-02-05 18:39:00

U.S. Senate to move ahead on budget process overhauling immigration, border security

by Jennifer Shutt, Louisiana Illuminator
February 5, 2025

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate Budget Committee plans to mark up a budget resolution next week, starting off the long and likely arduous reconciliation process the GOP hopes it can use to pass sweeping changes to border security and immigration policy.

Chairman Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, announced the markup on Wednesday, moving ahead of the House, which had hoped to move a budget resolution through committee this week.

“To those who believe that Republicans should fulfill their promises on border security, mass deportation of criminal illegal aliens: I agree,” Graham wrote in a statement.

“That is why the Senate Budget Committee will be moving forward next week to give the Trump Administration’s Border Czar, Tom Homan, the money he needs to finish the wall, hire ICE agents to deport criminal illegal immigrants, and create more detention beds so that we do not release more dangerous people into the country.”

Graham said the reconciliation bill “will be the most transformational border security bill in the history of our country.”

Budget blueprint

Congress’ budget resolution is a tax and spending blueprint that lays out lawmakers’ vision for the 10-year budget window. It doesn’t contain any actual federal spending.

The House and Senate must agree to adopt the same budget resolution before Congress formally unlocks the reconciliation process that will enable Republicans to enact their policies without Democratic support.

While the GOP controls both chambers of Congress, Senate rules require at least 60 lawmakers vote to limit debate on major bills. Republicans hold 53 seats at the moment, shy of the supermajority needed to move legislation through the regular process without Democratic buy-in.

The reconciliation process, which has strict rules in the Senate, allows the GOP to get around that 60-vote requirement as long as the various elements of the package address revenue or spending in a manner not deemed “merely incidental” by the Senate parliamentarian. Reconciliation bills also cannot change Social Security.

One bill or two?

Senate Republicans moving first on a budget resolution doesn’t guarantee the House will vote to adopt the same budget resolution, especially if it only contains reconciliation instructions to address border security and immigration policy.

House GOP leaders have pressed for months for Congress to move all of their policy goals, including those addressing tax and energy, through one reconciliation package.

Senate Republicans, including Graham, have said the party should write two separate reconciliation packages with the first focused on border security and the second addressing taxes.

While the House and Senate don’t need to work out all the policy details of the eventual reconciliation package in the budget resolution, they must agree which committees will get reconciliation instructions and what those instructions will say.

Vote-a-rama looms

Once the Senate Budget Committee votes its budget resolution to the Senate floor, GOP leaders will need to dedicate floor time to debating the resolution. But before the upper chamber can take a final vote on the budget resolution, senators will need to undertake the vote-a-rama; typically an all night marathon session, where senators from both parties put up dozens of amendments to the budget resolution.

Democrats will use the process to put senators facing challenging reelection prospects in 2026 on the record on policies that could cause them issues, either during a primary or a general election.

After that, the Senate’s budget resolution would go to the House, where GOP leaders could choose to adopt it, or to make changes, which would require it go back to the Senate

The House could also bring its own budget resolution up in its Budget Committee, bring that through the floor and then go to conference with the Senate.

That’s all before the House and Senate begin to debate the actual reconciliation bill with the actual policy changes in committees and on the floor.

Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said last month he hopes the entire process will be wrapped up before the end of May.

House GOP leaders have an especially narrow margin to work within, holding just 218 seats at the moment, compared to Democrat’s 215 members. There are currently two vacancies that will be filled by special elections later this year.  

Last updated 4:47 p.m., Feb. 5, 2025

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.

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New website shows public school officials' spending

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New website shows public school officials' spending

www.youtube.com – WDSU News – 2025-04-24 08:51:23

SUMMARY: A new website launched by Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming provides transparency on public school spending, revealing purchases such as luxury hotel stays and SUVs. While some see it as a step toward accountability, critics argue it may be intrusive. The site displays various expenditures, including a significant dinner at a high-end restaurant just before a school closure due to financial issues. Advocates, including parents, believe the data empowers communities to make informed decisions. However, there is controversy over the inclusion of staff salaries, with some feeling it invades privacy, though others, including teacher organizations, support the initiative.

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New website shows public school official’s spending

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Morning Forecast – Thursday, April 24th

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Morning Forecast - Thursday, April 24th

www.youtube.com – KTVE – 2025-04-24 08:27:04

SUMMARY: On April 24th, meteorologist Sammy Petraco reported ongoing scattered showers in Arkansas, with isolated rain in southeastern regions. Rainfall over the past 24 hours varied, with some areas receiving up to three inches while others saw minimal accumulation. Current temperatures are in the mid to upper 60s, with a humid environment expected throughout the week. Cloud cover persists, limiting sun exposure, and upper-level disturbances will continue to create scattered precipitation. Rain is likely tonight into Friday, with a cold front expected on Saturday potentially offering a brief reprieve. Daytime highs will be in the low to mid 80s.

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Today, more showers and storms expected in a scattered fashion in the afternoon and evening hours. If the past days haven’t already shown it, but it’s hard to pinpoint where the rain will happen, but the chance for rain is there. Clouds continue over the region with highs ranging from the upper 70s to low 80s, depending on shower and storm activity. Severe weather stays limited with winds out of the south 5-10 mph

Tonight, staying relatively the same as previous nights. Showers and storms may linger into the night before fizzling out to the east/ northeast. Skies stay broken to overcast with lows staying pretty muggy in the mid to upper 60s. Winds are light and variable

An unsettled pattern continues as rain chances are likely to end this week. That said, they will probably occur in a scattered to isolated fashion. Some of the storms that do develop may be a bit noisy and produce heavy rainfall. There is the potential to see a break in the rain early next week before the unsettled pattern continues after that. Temperatures reside in the lower to upper 80s with overnight lows falling only in the 60s. Keep the rain gear handy

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Taxes on vapes and smokeless tobacco advance through committee | Louisiana

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Taxes on vapes and smokeless tobacco advance through committee | Louisiana

www.thecentersquare.com – By Nolan McKendry | The Center Square – (The Center Square – ) 2025-04-24 07:00:00

(The Center Square) — The Louisiana House is weighing two bills by Rep. Ken Brass, D-Ascension, that would significantly increase taxes on vaping and smokeless tobacco products, aiming to curb youth use and fund cessation efforts..

House Bill 517, which has passed committee and is now headed to the House floor, would replace the state’s current tax on vaping products — 0.15 cents per milliliter of nicotine liquid — with a 33% tax on the invoice price of those products, starting Jan. 1, 2026. Retailers and wholesalers would be required to submit an inventory of their stock by Feb. 1, 2026, based on their holdings at the end of 2025.

Another bill by Brass would raise the excise tax on smokeless tobacco from 20% to 33% of the invoice price and dedicate 20% of the proceeds to a newly created Youth Cessation and Prevention Fund. That money would be divided among cancer research centers and the state Department of Health for evidence-based anti-tobacco programs. 

Brass told the House Ways and Means Committee that the rising use of vaping among children makes the issue urgent.

“Nearly one in five middle school students are currently vaping,” Brass said. “That’s a dramatic increase from just a few years ago — back in 2015, only 4.8% of middle schoolers vaped. Now it’s 18.4%. Among high school students, it’s jumped to over 30%.”

He warned that early nicotine use can have lifelong consequences.

“Most youth try tobacco between ages 12 and 13,” Brass said. “That early exposure has lasting effects — increased risk of depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. This is not just a school issue — it’s a statewide public health and economic issue. Smoking costs Louisiana billions in health care and productivity losses.”

But some Republicans questioned the strategy of using taxes as a deterrent.

“What I’m hearing is we have all these people breaking rules, and we’re going to fix it by making it more expensive,” said Rep. Roger Wilder, R-Livingston. “If you’re vaping in school, that’s already against school rules and the law for anyone under 21. Are schools even serious about enforcement?”

Wilder argued that without stronger action at the school or criminal justice level, the tax might not be an effective deterrent.

“Do we have a bill in education or criminal justice to actually address this where it’s happening—on the ground, in schools?” he asked. “I agree with the intent. I’m just not sure it’s going to be a real deterrent.”

Rep. Jay Galle, R-St. Tammany, echoed those concerns.

“Addictions are rarely deterred by an increase in price,” Galle said. “I understand this is a sin tax, but again, price alone rarely changes behavior.”

Brass defended the tax increases as one part of a larger effort to reduce nicotine use and shift the economic burden away from the state.

If the bills are signed into law, the vape tax increase would take effect Jan. 1, 2026, and the smokeless tobacco tax increase would begin July 1, 2025. 

The post Taxes on vapes and smokeless tobacco advance through committee | Louisiana appeared first on www.thecentersquare.com

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