WASHINGTON (news agencies) — The Senate came to a standstill Tuesday after slogging through a tense overnight session, with Republican leaders searching for ways to secure support for President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts while fending off proposed amendments, mostly from Democrats trying to defeat the package.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota spent the night reaching for last-minute agreements between those in his party worried the bill’s reductions to Medicaid will leave millions without care and his most conservative flank, which wants even steeper cuts to hold down deficits ballooning with the tax cuts.
Vice President JD Vance was at the Capitol, on hand to break a tie vote if needed.
It’s a pivotal moment for the Republicans, who have control of Congress and are racing to wrap up work with just days to go before Trump’s holiday deadline Friday. The 940-page “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” as it’s formally titled, has consumed Congress as its shared priority with the president.
At the same time House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana has signaled more potential problems ahead, warning the Senate package could run into trouble when it is sent back to the House for a final round of voting, as skeptical lawmakers are being called back to Washington ahead of Trump’s Fourth of July deadline.
Trump acknowledged it’s “very complicated stuff,” as he departed the White House for Florida.
“We’re going to have to see the final version,” the president said. “I don’t want to go too crazy with cuts. I don’t like cuts.”
What started as a routine, but laborious day of amendment voting, in a process called vote-a-rama, spiraled into an almost round-the-clock marathon as Republican leaders were buying time to shore up support. It was among the longest sessions processing the most amendments in modern times.
The droning roll calls in the chamber belied the frenzied action to steady the bill. Grim-faced scenes played out on and off the Senate floor, and tempers flared.
The GOP leaders have no room to spare, with narrow majorities in both chambers. Thune can lose no more than three Republican senators, and already two — Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who warns people will lose access to Medicaid health care, and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who opposes raising the debt limit by $5 trillion — have indicated opposition.
Attention quickly turned to key senators, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who have also worked to stem the health care cuts, but also a loose coalition of four conservative GOP senators pushing for even steeper reductions.
Asked if she’ll support the bill, Collins told the news agencies she continues to have a “lot of serious reservations about the bill.”
Murkowski in particular was the subject of the GOP leadership’s attention, as Thune and others sat beside her in conversation. By daybreak, she was huddled intensely for more than an hour in the back of the chamber with others, scribbling notes on papers.
At another point, all eyes shifted to Paul after he returned from a visit to Thune’s office with a stunning offer that could win his vote. He had suggested substantially lowering the proposed increase in the amount of the debt ceiling, according to two people familiar with the private meeting and granted anonymity to discuss it.
And on social media, billionaire Elon Musk was again lashing out at Republicans as “the PORKY PIG PARTY!!” for including the $5 trillion debt limit provision, which is needed to allow continued borrowing to pay the bills.
