White House economic adviser Gary Cohn (left) and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (right) will meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and members of the Senate Budget Committee Tuesday. | AP Photo Mnuchin, Cohn head to Congress Tuesday for tax talks

Senate Republicans and top Trump administration aides will huddle on Tuesday to discuss a key precondition to tax reform: Passing a budget.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and top Trump economic adviser Gary Cohn will meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and members of the Senate Budget Committee to plot how to pass a budget through committee and the narrowly divided Senate, according to two people familiar with the meeting. The gathering demonstrates how quickly Republicans are hoping to pivot to tax reform following a failed attempt to gut Obamacare and President Donald Trump's surprising deal with the Democrats on the debt ceiling and spending issues.


The Senate parliamentarian ruled that the GOP's powerful "reconciliation" instructions to repeal Obamacare via a majority vote expire after Sept. 30. While that guidance seems likely to kill the GOP's attempt to repeal the health care law, it also gives Republicans impetus to quickly move on to tax reform now that they have a concrete date to shift gears.

Playbook PM Sign up for our must-read newsletter on what's driving the afternoon in Washington. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

But though Republicans are fixating on when to release details of a plan being hatched by the Trump administration and top House and Senate GOP lawmakers, the Senate needs to pass a budget first in order to use reconciliation for tax reform. The Senate passed what amounted to a "shell" budget earlier this year merely as a means to repeal Obamacare with 50 votes, but Republicans say they are likely to try and write a more comprehensive, conservative budget in October to satisfy rank-and-file members.

Many Republicans are dissatisfied that the chamber is taking so long to set up its spending priorities.

"We should have been doing this budget thing differently all year and we’ve got to get the budget process fixed, because right now we don’t really have a budget." said Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.), a member of the budget panel.

It won't be easy, however, so Mnuchin and Cohn are expected to express how important it is that Republicans quickly pass a new budget document to clear a path for a tax reform vote by the end of the year. Many Republicans view the end of December as an effective drop-dead date for tax reform, with expiration of protections for some young immigrants now set to expire in March.

“I think the deadline is the calendar year end. We have to be aggressive about it and get it done," said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).