Even as the Senate pressed closer on Monday to a consequential vote on Republicans’ sweeping domestic policy bill, it was far from clear that party leaders had the support to pass it.
At least two senators in their ranks, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky, have said they will not vote for it. With Democrats uniformly opposed to the bill, G.O.P. leaders could afford to lose only three Republicans in the closely divided Senate, and even then would need to call in Vice President JD Vance to cast a tiebreaking vote.
Four defectors would be enough to kill the bill.
But at least a half-dozen Republican senators were still undecided on Monday, and several issues that could make or break their decisions had not been resolved.
Senators were still waiting to see if the parliamentarian would allow a spate of measures aimed at winning the vote of Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to be part of the bill, including a provision that would exempt her state from having to pay for a share of nutrition assistance payments currently financed entirely by the federal government.
Ms. Murkowski has been vocal in making the case that the legislation would hurt her state, and waited more than 90 minutes after the vote to take up the legislation began to cast her “aye,” after huddling in intense conversation with party leaders on the floor.
A clutch of conservatives, including Senators Rick Scott of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, have demanded a vote on an amendment that would slash Medicaid further, by changing the formula used to determine what share of the program’s bills are paid by the federal government.
Mr. Johnson has said he will wait to see whether Republicans adopt that amendment before deciding whether he will support the overall legislation. Should the proposal succeed, the bill could lose the support of senators who are already alarmed at the level of Medicaid cuts it would impose, as well as Republicans in the House with districts with large populations of Medicaid beneficiaries.
And Senator Susan Collins of Maine, who has not committed to voting for the bill, planned to offer an amendment to raise the tax rate for the most affluent Americans back to what it was before the 2017 tax cuts were enacted. Ms. Collins has said she is unhappy that the legislation does not contain a bigger fund to help rural hospitals absorb the Medicaid cuts laid out in the bill.
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times.
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