Senators hunkered down Monday to consider proposed amendments to President Donald Trump's big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts amid challenges, including the weekend announcement from one GOP senator that he won't run for reelection after opposing the package over its Medicaid healthcare cuts.
The potential changes were being considered in what's called a vote-a-rama, though most are expected to fail. With Democrats united against Trump's legislation and eagerly lined up to challenge it, the voting could take all day and churn into the night.
"It's time to vote," said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., as the session opened.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the "hardest choices" for Republicans are still to come. Democrats, he said, are bringing "amendment after amendment after amendment to the floor, so Republicans can defend their billionaire tax cuts and so they can try to explain their massive cuts to Medicaid to people back home."
The day will be pivotal for the Republicans, who have control of Congress and are racing against Trump's July Fourth deadline to wrap up work. The 940-page "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," as it's formally titled, has consumed Congress as its shared priority with the president, with no room politically to fail, even as not all Republicans are on board.
A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law. The CBO said the package would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the decade.
The leadership team of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has recalled lawmakers back to Washington for voting in the House as soon as Wednesday if the legislation can first clear the Senate.
But the outcome remains uncertain.
As the first few amendments came up Monday — to strike parts of the bill that would limit Medicaid funds to rural hospitals or shift the costs of food stamps benefits to the states — some were winning support from a few Republicans.
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, joined Democrats on the rural hospitals amendment, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, joined Democrats on both votes.
But none of the amendments won majority support to substantially change the package.
Few Republicans appear fully satisfied as the final package emerges. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who announced Sunday he would not seek reelection after Trump chided him over his opposition to the package, said he has the same goals as Trump: cutting taxes and spending.
But Tillis said this package opposes Trump's promises not to kick people off healthcare, especially if rural hospitals close.
"We could take the time to get this right," he said.
At the same time, some loosely aligned conservative Senate Republicans — Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.; Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah; Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; and Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. — have pushed for steeper cuts, particularly to healthcare, drawing their own warning from Trump.
"Don't go too crazy!" the president posted on social media. "REMEMBER, you still have to get reelected."
All told, the Senate bill includes some $4 trillion in tax cuts, making permanent Trump's 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act, while adding the new ones he campaigned on, including no taxes on tips.
The Senate package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits that Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide and impose $1.2 trillion in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing work requirements, making sign-up eligibility more stringent, and changing federal reimbursements to states.
Additionally, the bill would provide a $350 billion infusion for border and national security, including for deportations, some of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants.
Unable to stop the march toward passage, the Democrats as the minority party in Congress are using the tools at their disposal to delay and drag out the process.
Democrats forced a full reading of the text, which took 16 hours. Then Democratic senators took over Sunday's debate, filling the chamber with speeches, while Republicans largely stood aside.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, raised particular concern about the accounting method being used by the Republicans, which says the tax breaks from Trump's first term are now "current policy" and the cost of extending them should not be counted toward deficits.
"In my 33 years here in the United States Senate, things have never — never — worked this way," said Murray, the longest-serving Democrat on the Budget Committee.
She said that kind of "magic math" won't fly with Americans trying to balance their own household books.
"Go back home," she said, "and try that game with your constituents."
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