Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-S.D.) must nail down the help of a number of Republican senators, together with no less than two moderates and three conservatives, who haven’t but mentioned they’ll vote for remaining passage of President Trump’s megabill after a marathon collection of modification votes.
Senate Republicans are feeling principally assured about passing Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” however the laws nonetheless faces a number of obstacles.
Three conservatives — Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) — are urgent for the adoption of an modification that may lower a further $313 in federal Medicaid spending.
And no less than two of them, Johnson and Scott, gained’t say in the event that they’ll vote for remaining passage if the modification doesn’t succeed.
The modification, which might cease the 9-to-1 federal match for Medicaid enrollees who’re “able-bodied” and with out dependent youngsters in states that expanded this system, is unlikely to be adopted.
A number of Republican senators, together with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), have pushed laborious in opposition to the Medicaid cuts already within the invoice.
“I think that this effort to cut Medicaid funding is a mistake,” Hawley informed reporters over the weekend.
“Frankly, my party needs to do some soul-searching. If you want to be a working-class party, you’ve got to deliver to working-class people. You cannot take away health care from working people,” he mentioned.
Stay updates: Democrats lose key enchantment on Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ as vote-a-rama kicks off
A minimum of two moderates, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), haven’t but mentioned whether or not they’ll vote to move the invoice as they press for main adjustments.
Collins has provided an modification to create a brand new 39.6 p.c tax bracket for people who earn greater than $25 million yearly and {couples} who earn greater than $50 million.
Her modification would allocate the cash raised to double the scale of a rural hospital reduction fund from $25 billion to $50 billion.
Murkowski, in the meantime, is planning to supply an modification to decelerate the phaseout of wind and photo voltaic tax credit.
The Alaska senator was noticed in a flooring huddle with Thune and Utah Sen. John Curtis (R), who shares her concern in regards to the fast phaseout of unpolluted vitality subsidies, throughout one of many modification votes.
The timing of the votes on the amendments to additional lower Medicaid, double the agricultural hospital fund and decelerate the phaseout of wind and photo voltaic tax credit had but to be introduced as of mid-Monday afternoon.
The Senate parliamentarian had not but signed off on key parts of the laws as late as 3:30 p.m. Monday and Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) accused the GOP management of slicing “side-deals” with GOP senators.
“They’re hiding from us all kinds of things,” Schumer claimed. “They’re doing all kinds of deals with other members, backroom deals, side deals. We have to see them. … We can’t get things done, the way we’re supposed to, unless they show us how they’re changing the bill, because they’re changing it in numerous ways.”
Thune wouldn’t say Monday morning whether or not Republicans have the votes to move the invoice, and he predicted the marathon vote-a-rama on amendments would drag on late into the day.
Thune can solely afford three Republican defections and nonetheless move the invoice.
Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) are laborious “no” votes.
Paul has balked at language within the invoice elevating the debt restrict by $5 trillion, whereas Tillis has balked at Medicaid spending cuts that he warns may trigger greater than 600,000 North Carolinians to lose Medicaid protection.
The vote-a-rama began with a fierce partisan battle over the Republicans’ use of a “current policy” funds baseline to attain the extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts as not including to federal deficits past 2034.
The parliamentarian delivered essential steerage to Senate Funds Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) stating that he has authority below Part 312 of the Congressional Funds Act to set the baseline for the invoice.
Senate Democrats have argued for weeks that the invoice ought to be scored on a “current-law” baseline, below which the extension of the 2017 tax cuts would add $3.5 trillion to federal deficits between 2025 and 2034 and would improve deficits after 2034.
If Democrats had gotten the parliamentarian to agree with them, they might have compelled Republicans to rewrite the invoice completely. However they didn’t get that essential ruling on the baseline.
“I feel great. I have never felt better,” Graham exulted on the Senate flooring. “We’re not overruling the parliamentarian because she said it was up to the chairman to set the baseline.”
Schumer provided a movement to overturn the ruling of the chair that the invoice was in compliance with the Funds Act, however it failed in a 53-to-47, party-line vote.
Issues grew tense on the Senate flooring when Schumer castigated his Republican colleagues for mendacity in regards to the large cuts to Medicaid that may occur if the invoice turns into regulation.
“Our colleagues on the Republican side lack the courage of their convictions to do the right thing for the American people, it’s outrageous,” Schumer thundered.
He mentioned that Tillis, who has warned loudly that the Medicaid cuts might be devastating to his state, is “one of the truth tellers on the other side” and charged that Republicans are “deploying fake math and budgetary hocus-pocus to make it seem like their billionaire giveaways don’t cost anything.”
Schumer’s rhetoric obtained so heated that he drew a uncommon scolding from the Senate’s presiding chair, who on the time was Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio).
Moreno needed to warn Schumer to not violate Rule XIX, which states {that a} senator shall not impute to a different senator any conduct or motive that’s unworthy or unbecoming of a senator.
One other outstanding second got here when Sen. Invoice Hagerty (R-Tenn.), throughout his stint because the Senate’s presiding chair, dominated that Graham, the Funds chair, would have sole authority to determine whether or not provisions of the invoice adjust to funds regulation.
Hagerty mentioned that except Graham asserts {that a} provision of the invoice or an modification causes a violation of the 1974 Funds Act, the presiding chair is not going to maintain any budgetary point-of-order objection in opposition to the invoice.
That prompted a forceful objection from Senate Funds Committee rating member Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who mentioned the ruling gave Graham “the ability of the chair to create a phony baseline.”
He mentioned that “has never been used in reconciliation, not ever.”
“This breaks a 51-year tradition of the Senate for honest numbers,” he declared.
Merkley’s movement to overrule the chair failed on a party-line vote, 47-51.
Republicans stayed unified on a succession of different Democratic motions to derail the invoice, together with a movement by Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) to ship the invoice again to the Finance Committee to remodel adjustments to well being care supplier taxes that may scale back federal Medicaid spending by a whole lot of billions of {dollars} in states across the nation.
Republicans additionally rejected a movement from Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) to ship the invoice again to committee to remodel cuts to the Supplemental Diet Help Program.
And senators rejected alongside occasion strains a movement from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the rating member on the Finance panel, to ship the invoice again to Finance to redo different adjustments to Medicaid.
Up to date at 4:53 p.m.
