US Senate Republicans make final push to pass Trump’s ‘one big beautiful bill’

 

US Senate Republicans make final push to pass Trump’s ‘one big beautiful bill’

 

Senators convene for ‘vote-a-rama’ in which they will propose amendments, probably over many hours

 

Chris Stein

Mon 30 Jun 2025 17.13 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/30/republicans-senators-trump-one-big-beautiful-bill

 

US Senate Republicans will on Monday make a final push for passage of Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill”, a massive tax-and-spending bill that the president has demanded be ready for his signature by Friday.

 

Senators convened at the Capitol for a process known as “vote-a-rama”, in which lawmakers will propose amendments to the legislation over what is expected to be many hours. Democrats, who universally oppose the bill, are expected to use the process to force the GOP into politically tricky votes that they will seek to wield against them in elections to come.

 

But all eyes will be on Republicans, who will use the process to make last-minute changes to the text ahead of a vote for passage that could come on Tuesday, after which it will return to the House of Representatives for their final say-so. On Saturday, Senate Republicans agreed to begin debate on the act, but not without substantial drama. After the North Carolina moderate Thom Tillis declined to vote for the bill, Trump attacked him and the senator announced he would not stand for re-election next year, potentially improving Democrats’ chances of picking up the purple state’s seat.

 

As the marathon session kicked off on Monday morning, John Thune sounded optimistic that the measure would soon clear his chamber.

 

“Let’s vote. This is good for America, this is good for the American people, it is good for working families,” the Senate majority leader said.

 

Democrats managed to slow down the bill’s progress temporarily on Saturday night, by demanding the clerk read its entire 940-page text before amendments could be considered – a process that took until Sunday afternoon.

 

On the Senate floor on Monday morning, Chuck Schumer said the bill “steals people’s healthcare, jacks up their electricity bill, take away their jobs – all to pay for tax breaks for billionaires”.

 

Democrats, the Senate minority leader said, would offer amendments to “see once and for all if Republicans really meant all those nice things they’ve been saying about ‘strengthening Medicaid’ and ‘protecting middle-class families’, or if they were just lying”.

 

It remains unclear if enough Republican votes exist for passage of the bill through the Senate. The GOP can only afford three defections, and Tillis and Kentucky’s Rand Paul have both said they will vote against it.

 

The bill is Trump’s top legislative priority, and focused exclusively on tax and spending matters so it can be passed through the Senate without being subject to the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold. The measure would extend tax cuts created during Trump’s first term in 2017, and create new exemptions for tips, overtime and car loan interest that were part of the president’s re-election pitch.

 

It would also provide tens of billions of dollars to hire new immigration agents, build fortifications along US frontiers, including a wall along the southern border with Mexico, and expand the government’s capacity to deport people.

 

To offset its costs, Republicans have proposed cuts to Medicaid, which provides healthcare to low-income and disabled Americans, and the supplementary nutritional assistance program, also known as food stamps. They have also proposed sunsetting some of the green energy tax credits created under Joe Biden.

 

Moderate Republican lawmakers fear the benefit cuts will harm programs their constituents rely on and put rural hospitals out of business, and are expected to propose amendments designed to cushion the blow. Others object to rapidly sunsetting the green energy incentives because it will set back projects under way in their states or create uncertainty for investors.

 

Republican leaders are also seeking to appease fiscal conservatives in the House and Senate who are demanding the bill reduce the United States’s large federal budget deficit. As written, the bill does not appear to do that – on Sunday, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated it would add $3.3tn to the deficit through 2034.