President Donald Trump was promoting his so-called “big, beautiful bill” on Thursday, but his signature legislation faced a major setback in Congress.
Senate Republicans are still working to address major points of contention as they scramble to pass their version of the president’s domestic spending agenda ahead of the Fourth of July.
But Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who determines which provisions adhere to Senate rules for passing legislation through reconciliation, nixed provisions that restrict the state provider tax used to pay for Medicaid as well as measures to limit undocumented immigrants from using public benefits.
Changes to Medicaid were part of the way GOP lawmakers were attempting to offset the cost of making Trump’s tax cuts permanent.
“That’s a big old grenade,” said Sen. Ron Johnson after already saying he cannot accept a “one and done” bill and blasting its impact on the deficit.
The ruling sends Senate Republicans back to the drawing board on the controversial issue, which had already received pushback from Senators Josh Hawley, Susan Collins, and Lisa Murkowski for how the original proposal would hurt rural hospitals.
The roadblock has divided GOP senators. Senator Roger Marshall said on Thursday that MacDonough has been in the position too long and needs to be fired.
But Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he would not overrule the Senate parliamentarian. His sentiments were echoed by other GOP senators, including Sen. Bill Cassidy, who said there needs to be a “neutral arbiter.” Sen. Collins also said she was against it.
“What people need to remember, what comes around goes around,” Collins said. “When it comes to the parliamentarian, she may rule the way you like one day, the way you don’t the next.”
The White House called the latest setback “part of the process” and signaled it still expects the president to sign the bill next week.
“We expect that bill to be on the president’s desk for signature by July 4th,” insisted Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Trump has been on the phone with senators. He spoke with Hawley on his way back from NATO, but he hasn’t made a visit to the Hill to rally Senate support like he did before the passage of the House bill.
Senator Kevin Cramer laughed on Thursday as he said he would recommend that the president come to meet with GOP senators.
But as Senate Republicans struggle to draft a bill that complies with the rules, so they only need to reach the 50-vote threshold to pass it, more House members are threatening to sink the Senate bill if it comes back to their chamber.
MAGA members of the House were infuriated by the intervention.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was the latest to blast the Senate effort after the parliamentarian scrapped the Medicaid provider tax policy.
She claimed on X that their goal was “kicking illegals off of Medicare and Medicaid” but that “the UN-ELECTED Senate Parliamentarian used the Byrd Rule, meaning these Trump agenda priorities, that deliver our campaign promises, need to be stripped out of the One Big Beautiful Bill.”
“How is it that an unelected swamp bureaucrat, who was appointed by Harry Reid over a decade ago, gets to decide what can and cannot go in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill?” wrote Rep. Greg Steube.
Rep. Chip Roy also has warned that he believes the Senate version of the bill is heading in the wrong direction after he was a tough sell on voting for the House bill last month, which passed by one vote.
The parliamentarian still has other measures in the draft legislation to rule on, so further challenges could follow. GOP senators acknowledged on Thursday that the situation was fluid.
Even before the latest setback, conservative House Republicans were already threatening to vote against it if the Senate finds a way to get 50 votes and send it back.
House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris posted on X that the proposed Senate version of the bill “weakens key House priorities.” He took issue with its provisions on Medicaid, not rolling back clean energy tax credits enough, and said it greatly increased the deficit.
“If the Senate tries to jam the House with this version, I won’t vote ‘present.’ I’ll vote NO,” he wrote.
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