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Senate Republicans rammed President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” through a procedural hurdle after hours of tense negotiations that put the megabill’s fate into question.
Speculation swirled whether Republicans would be satisfied by the latest edition of the mammoth bill, which was released just before the stroke of midnight Saturday morning.
Nearly every Republican, except Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., all voted to unlock a marathon 20-hour debate on the bill. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., could only afford to lose three votes.
Though successful, the 51-49 party line vote was not without drama. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., flipped his vote from a ‘no’ to ‘yes’ in dramatic fashion, as he and Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, made their way to the Senate floor accompanied by Vice President JD Vance.
Vance was called in case he was needed for a tie-breaking vote, but only his negotiating services ended up being used.
No lawmaker wanted to be the fourth and final decisive vote to kill the bill. Republican leadership kept the floor open for nearly four hours while negotiations, first on the Senate floor and then eventually in Thune’s office, continued.
The bill won’t immediately be debated thanks to Senate Democrats’ plan to force the reading of the entire, 940-page legislative behemoth on the Senate floor – a move that could drain several hours and go deep into the night.
The megabill’s fate, and whether it could pass its first test, was murky at best after senators met behind closed doors Friday, and even during another luncheon on Saturday.
Lingering concerns in both chambers about Medicaid — specifically the Medicaid provider tax rate and the effect of direct payments to states — energy tax credits, the state and local tax (SALT) deduction and others proved to be pain points that threatened the bill’s survival.
However, changes were made at the last-minute to either sate holdouts or comply with the Senate rules. Indeed, the Senate parliamentarian stripped numerous items from the bill that had to be reworked.
The Medicaid provider tax rate was kept largely the same, except its implementation date was moved back a year. Also included as a sweetener for lawmakers like Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and others was a $25 billion rural hospital stabilization fund over the next five years.
Collins said that she would support the bill through the procedural hurdle, and noted that the rural hospital stabilization fund was a start, but whether she supports the bill on final passage remains to be seen.
“If the bill is not further changed, I will be leaning against the bill, but I do believe this procedural vote to get on the bill so that people can offer amendments and debate it is appropriate,” Collins said.
Tillis, who is also concerned about the changes to Medicaid and would like to see a return to the House GOP’s version, said that he would not vote in favor of the bill during final passage.
The SALT deduction included in the House GOP’s version of the bill also survived, albeit the $40,000 cap will remain intact for five years. After that, the cap will revert to its current $10,000.
Other sweeteners, like expanding nutrition benefit waivers to Alaska and a tax cut for whaling boat captains, were thrown in, too, to get moderates like Murkowski onboard with the bill.
Lee announced that he withdrew his open lands sale provision, which proved a sticking point for lawmakers in Montana and Idaho.
Still, Republicans who are not satisfied with the current state of the bill will use the forthcoming “vote-a-rama,” when lawmakers can offer an unlimited number of amendments, to try and change as much as they can before final passage.
Democrats, however, will use the process to inflict as much pain as possible on Republicans.
Once the amendment marathon concludes, which could be in the wee hours of Sunday morning, lawmakers will move to a final vote to send the bill, which is an amendment to the House GOP’s version of the “big, beautiful bill,” back to the lower chamber.
From there, it’s a dead sprint to get the package on the president’s desk by July 4.
In a statement of administration policy obtained by Fox News Digital, Trump signaled that he would sign the bill.
“President Trump is committed to keeping his promises,” the memo read. “And failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal.”
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