GOP senators push ahead on Trump's tax cuts package and delay big decisions for later

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators are meeting Wednesday morning with President Donald Trump at the White House as they push ahead on his big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts while delaying some of the most difficult decisions, including the costs and how to pay for the multitrillion-dollar package.

The Senate GOP’s budget framework would be the companion to the House Republicans' $4.5 trillion tax cuts package that also calls for cutting some $2 trillion from health care and other programs. If the Senate can move the blueprint forward, it would edge Trump's allies on Capitol Hill closer to a compromise setting the stage for a final product in the coming weeks.

“Obviously we are hopeful this week we can get a budget resolution on the floor that will unlock the process,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. “And so we are continuing to move forward with that.”

Thune and Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee are meeting with Trump before the expected public release of their budget blueprint by the committee chairman, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, as soon as the afternoon.

While big differences remain, Republicans face increasing political pressure to deliver on what is expected to be Trump’s signature domestic policy package: extending the tax cuts, which were initially approved in 2017, during his first term at the White House. Those tax breaks expire at the end of the year, and Trump wants to expand them to include new no taxes on tipped wages, overtime pay and other earnings, as he promised during the 2024 campaign.

Democrats are preparing to oppose the GOP tax plans as giveaways to the wealthy, coming as billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is taking a “chain saw” to the federal government. They warn Republicans plan to cut government programs and services that millions of Americans depend on nationwide.

“We are standing together against the GOP tax scam and in defense of the American people,” House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries said alongside others on the Capitol steps late Tuesday.

One main sticking point between the House and Senate GOP plans has been over whether the existing tax cuts, which are estimated to cost the federal government $4.5 trillion over the decade in lost revenue, need to be paid for by spending reductions elsewhere. Adding Trump's new tax breaks to the package would balloon the price tag.

To offset the costs, House Republicans are demanding some $2 trillion in cuts to health care and other accounts to stem federal deficits and prevent the nation's $36 trillion debt load from skyrocketing.

But GOP senators have a different approach. They take the view that because the tax cuts are already the current policy, they would not be new and would not need to be paid for. They want to use this current policy baseline moving forward, meaning only Trump's other proposed tax breaks would come with a new cost. They are expected to set much lower spending cuts as a floor that can be raised, if needed, to compromise with the House's $2 trillion in cuts.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and top Democrats call the Senate GOP's approach a gimmick at best, if not an outright “lie.”

“It is an obscene fraud and the American people won’t stand for it,” said Schumer, Sen. Jeff Merkley of the Budget Committee and Sen. Ron Wyden of the Finance Committee in a letter to GOP leadership.

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey argued against the GOP baseline as “a gimmick” that would cut important federal services while growing deficits.

“What they're investing in is bigger tax cuts for the wealthiest,” Booker said during a landmark overnight speech.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and congressional GOP leaders have been meeting privately as Trump's priority package churns on Capitol Hill. At a meeting with other Senate Republicans late Monday at the Capitol, Bessent urged them to get it done.

Typically, the current policy baseline proposal would need to pass the muster of the Senate's nonpartisan parliamentarian to make sure it abides by the strict rules of the budget process. Senators from both parties have been arguing in closed-door sessions with the parliamentarian staff — for and against the idea.

But GOP leaders say they don’t necessarily need the Senate parliamentarian, at this point, to resolve the issue, and they believe Graham, as the Senate Budget Committee chairman, has the authority to allow their current policy baseline approach.

What is more certain is that they want to move quickly this week to pass the framework. That will entail a lengthy all-night vote that could drag into the weekend. Then, they will sort out the details later as the Republicans, facing Democratic opposition, build the actual package for consideration in the weeks, if not months, ahead.

From left, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick follow President Donald Trump to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House en route to Florida, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., joined by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., the GOP whip, left, talks to reporters at the Capitol, in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Hours before college basketball crowns its next champion, the future of college sports will be hanging in the balance in a California courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken's scheduled hearing Monday in a courtroom in Oakland is expected to be the last one before the changes will truly begin under an industry-changing, $2.8 billion settlement of a 5-year-old lawsuit against the NCAA and the nation's largest conferences. Among other things, it will clear the way for schools to share up to $20.5 million each with their athletes.

Wilken already has granted preliminary approval for the settlement. It was unknown whether she will give final approval at Monday's hearing, which is expected to include testimony from some of those objecting to details of the sprawling plan. LSU gymnast and influencer Olivia Dunne is among the 18 people scheduled to testify, though she is expected to appear via Zoom.

The new structure outlined by the settlement, which represents a shift in billions of dollars from the schools into the pockets of athletes, is supposed to go into effect on July 1.

Universities across the country have been busy making plans, under the assumption Wilken will put the terms into effect.

“We're going to have a plan going into July 1, then we're probably going to spend the next year figuring out how good that plan is and how we need to modify it going forward,” said Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin, whose department is among the biggest in the country and includes a Gators men's basketball team playing for the national title Monday night against Houston.

The so-called House settlement, named after Arizona State swimmer Grant House, actually decides three similar lawsuits that were bundled into one. The defendants are the NCAA and the Southeastern, Big Ten, Atlantic Coast, Big 12 and Pac-12 conferences, all of whom have been touting the settlement as the best path forward for their industry.

“It's a huge step forward for college sports, especially at the highest level," said NCAA President Charlie Baker, whose organization continues to seek antitrust protections from Congress. “My biggest problem with the way the whole thing works right now is the schools have been removed from the primary relationship with the student-athletes.”

The most ground-shifting part of the settlement calls on schools from the biggest conferences to pay some 22% of their revenue from media rights, ticket sales and sponsorships — which equals about $20.5 million in the first year — directly to athletes for use of their name, images and likeness (NIL).

Still allowed would be NIL payments to athletes from outside sources, which is what triggered the seismic shift that college sports has endured over the last four years. For instance, Cooper Flagg of Duke reportedly makes $4.8 million in NIL deals from groups affiliated with the school and others.

The settlement calls for a “clearinghouse” to make sure any NIL deal worth more than $600 is pegged at “fair market value." It's an attempt to prevent straight “pay for play” deals, though many critics believe the entire new structure is simply NIL masquerading as that.

Another key element is the $2.8 billion in back damages to athletes who played sports between 2016 and 2024 and were not entitled to the full benefits of NIL at the time they attended schools. Those payments are being calculated by a formula that will favor football and basketball players and will be doled out by the NCAA and the conferences.

The settlement also calls for replacing scholarship limits with roster limits. The effect would be to allow every athlete to be eligible for a scholarship while cutting the number of spots available.

There will be winners and losers under such a formula, though some fear it could signal the end of the walk-on athlete in college sports and also imperil smaller sports programs that train and populate the U.S. Olympic team.

AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports

Florida's Alijah Martin (15) dunks the ball against Auburn during the second half in the national semifinals at the Final Four of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

UConn center Jana El Alfy (8) and UConn guard Paige Bueckers (5) react during the first half of a national semifinal Final Four game against UCLA during the women's NCAA college basketball tournament, Friday, April 4, 2025, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Auburn guard Tahaad Pettiford (0) moves on the court against Michigan State during the second half in the Elite Eight of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Sunday, March 30, 2025, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)