The issue focused on federal defense spending. Lawmakers had spent several days crafting legislation that would ensure government agencies took full advantage of tax dollars to spend money on public projects. The law also authorized $40 billion in additional defense spending for fiscal years 2017 and 2018.

While many Republicans agreed with the overall budget concept, they argued it should not amount to as much as Trump wanted. Lawmakers needed to cut tax revenue by about $1.5 trillion over 10 years to reach that target. But tax cuts could