Senate Republicans on Saturday narrowly voted to advance a sprawling 1,000-page invoice to enact President Trump’s agenda, regardless of the opposition of two GOP lawmakers.
The vote was 51-49.
Two Republicans voted in opposition to advancing the package deal: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who opposes a provision to boost the debt restrict by $5 trillion and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who says the laws would value his state $38.9 trillion in federal Medicaid funding.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) modified his “no” vote to “aye,” and holdout Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) additionally voted sure to advance the invoice.
The invoice had suffered a number of important setbacks within the days and hours earlier than coming to the ground, at occasions showing to be on shaky floor.
The vote itself was additionally filled with drama.
Indicators of bother began to pop up 50 minutes after the vote opened when three GOP senators who had expressed misgivings in regards to the invoice — Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Lee and Scott — nonetheless hadn’t confirmed up on the Senate flooring.
Three different Republican senators, Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Johnson, introduced properly upfront of the vote that they’d oppose the movement to proceed and couldn’t help the invoice in its present type.
Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-S.D.) stood alongside the again wall of the chamber — showing considerably nervous — ready for his lacking colleagues to reach on the ground.
Thune was surrounded by members of his management crew, together with Senate GOP Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), the deputy whip, and Senate Finances Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), as he shifted his weight from foot to foot.
When Murkowski lastly appeared on the ground, she was shortly surrounded by Thune, Barrasso, Graham and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who barraged her on all sides with factors and interjections.
Then Murkowski walked away from the management group and sat down subsequent to Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Invoice Cassidy (R-La.) to have a quiet tête-à-tête.
Murkowski finally voted in favor of advancing the measure, however the vote remained open.
Virtually three hours after the vote started, Johnson, Lee, Scott and Lummis walked out of Thune’s workplace with Vice President Vance and headed to the Senate flooring to forged the ultimate votes to advance the invoice.
Earlier within the week, maybe essentially the most notable setback was a ruling by the Senate parliamentarian earlier this week {that a} cap on well being care supplier taxes, which is projected to save lots of billions of {dollars} in federal Medicaid spending, violated the Senate’s Byrd Rule. GOP leaders had been capable of rewrite that provision for it to stay within the invoice.
And the laws appeared in peril moments earlier than vote when Sen. Tim Sheehy, a freshman Republican from Montana, threatened to vote in opposition to the movement to proceed if the invoice included a provision championed by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) directing the Inside Division to promote tens of millions of acres of public lands.
Sheehy agreed on the final minute to vote for the laws after GOP leaders promised he would get a vote on an modification to strip the language forcing the sale of public lands from the invoice.
Ultimately, Thune pulled off a significant victory by transferring the laws a giant step nearer to ultimate passage.
Thune hailed the laws Saturday as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to deliver legislation to create a safer, stronger and more prosperous America.”
He cited $160 billion to safe the borders and beef up immigration enforcement and $150 billion to extend the Pentagon’s finances, in addition to an array of recent tax cuts along with the extension of Trump’s expiring 2017 tax cuts.
He pointed to the invoice’s elimination of taxes on suggestions and taxes on extra time pay for hourly employees in addition to language permitting individuals to deduct auto mortgage curiosity after they purchase a brand new automobile made in the US.
President Trump has set a July 4 deadline for Congress to get the invoice to his desk.
Senate Democratic Chief Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) blasted his Republican colleagues for unveiling the 940-page Senate substitute modification late Friday night time, giving senators just a few hours to overview the laws earlier than the vote.
“Hard to believe, this bill is worse, even worse than any draft we’ve seen thus far. It’s worse on health care. It’s worse on [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.] It’s worse on the deficit,” he mentioned.
Schumer slammed Republicans for advancing the invoice earlier than having an official budgetary estimate from the Congressional Finances Workplace.
“They’re afraid to show how badly this will increases the deficit,” he mentioned. “Future generations will be saddled with trillions in debt.”
A preliminary evaluation by the Congressional Finances Workplace circulated by Senate Finance Committee Democrats Saturday estimates the invoice will lower Medicaid by $930 billion, way more considerably than the laws handed final month by the Home.
Tillis cited the impression on Medicaid as the rationale he voted “no” on the movement to proceed and plans to vote “no” on ultimate passage.
“I cannot support this bill in its current form. It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities,” he mentioned in a press release.
“This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population,” he warned.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a important swing vote, mentioned she voted to advance the laws out of “deference” to the GOP chief however warned that doesn’t imply she is going to vote “yes” on ultimate passage.
She mentioned that Senate negotiators improved the laws earlier than releasing it Friday however added that she needs to make further modifications.
“Typically, I give deference to the bulk chief’s energy to deliver payments to the Senate flooring. Doesn’t in any method predict how I’m going to vote on ultimate passage,” Collins advised reporters.
“That’s going to depend on whether the bill is substantially changed,” she mentioned. “There are some very good changes that have been made in the latest version but I want to see further changes and I will be filing a number of amendments.”
Former senior White Home advisor Elon Musk blasted the Senate invoice on social media shortly earlier than the vote, calling it filled with “handouts to industries of the past,” referring to the oil, fuel and coal industries.
“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country! Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future,” he wrote on X, the social media platform he owns.
Schumer advised Democratic senators earlier than the vote that he would drive the clerks to learn the whole 1,000-page invoice on the Senate flooring, which is estimated to take as much as 12 hours and delay the beginning of debate and the beginning of a marathon collection of modification votes, referred to as a vote-a-rama.
It’s unclear whether or not Republican senators will maintain the Senate in session in a single day Saturday into Sunday morning to have the invoice learn aloud on the ground, an exhausting course of for the Senate flooring employees.
An in a single day studying of the invoice would go away the clerks and flooring employees weary earlier than senators are scheduled to carry 20 hours of debate on the laws after which launch right into a multi-hour vote-a-rama.
