GOP Sens. Paul, Collins, Tillis Vote Against Megabill

GOP Sens. Thom Tillis, Rand Paul, and Susan Collins voted against the Senate's passage of their party's "big beautiful bill," as had been expected, but Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who had also spoken about the measure, voted for it, helping lead to the legislation's passage by a vote of 51-50 after Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.

Collins, R-Maine, posted on X just minutes after the Senate vote, said that while she was pleased the final version of the legislation contained a special fund she proposed to assist rural hospitals, "It is not sufficient to offset the other changes in the Medicaid system."

She added that while she continues to support the tax relief she voted for in 2017, she "could not support" the bill's Medicaid changes. 

"My vote against this bill stems primarily from the harmful impact it will have on Medicaid, affecting low-income families and rural healthcare providers like our hospitals and nursing homes," she said. 

Collins also said the bill has "additional problems."

"The tax credits that energy entrepreneurs have relied on should have been gradually phased out so as not to waste the work that has already been put into these innovative new projects and prevent them from being completed," she said. "The bill should have also retained incentives for Maine families who choose to install heat pumps and residential solar panels."

Paul, R-Ky., who also has been a vocal opponent of the legislation, said on X that he worked all night through the vote-a-rama on amendments to "stop Congress from adding to our debt."

He added that he met with Vance and reiterated his offer to vote for the bill if it included a 90% reduction in the debt ceiling.

"I wasn't looking for favors," he said. "I wasn't horse-trading. I was fighting for the American people and against our out-of-control debt. Bottom line: I offered my vote for fiscal sanity. Congress chose to sell out taxpayers instead. Only once the bill is released, we will know what the true price was."

Tillis, R-N.C., did not issue an immediate statement after voting against the bill. However, on Sunday, he posted a statement noting that there was a "lot for North Carolinians to love" about the measure, including extending President Donald Trump's 2017 tax cuts, increasing the child tax credit, and providing funding for border security, while ending wasteful spending.

"We can and must accomplish this without hurting our rural communities and hospitals, and without jeopardizing access to care for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who need it the most," he said.

Tillis announced over the weekend that he will not seek reelection, after Trump threatened to back his primary opponent over the senator's refusal to vote for the megabill. 

Murkowski, meanwhile, said that she made an "agonizing" decision to vote for the bill, after she won key concessions on health issues and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to benefit Alaska, reported Politico.  

"Did I get everything I wanted? Absolutely not," she told reporters after the vote. 

She also pushed for a change in taxes for solar and wind energy projects, which Republicans removed, and said Tuesday that she wanted to see Trump's 2017 tax cuts extended. 

"I had to look on balance, because the people in my state are the ones that I put first," she said. "We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination. My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we're not there yet."

She added that she's urged the White House and top congressional Republicans to send the bill to conference rather than pushing it through the House this week and said she does not agree with the "artificial" timeline of having the bill on Trump's desk for a signature by July 4. 

"I’ve urged the White House that I think that more process is needed to this bill, because I would like to see a better outcome for people in this country," she said.