Senate Republicans seek support for Trump’s big bill in overnight session

WASHINGTON AP The Senate is slogging through a tense overnight session that has dragged into Tuesday with Republican leaders buying time as they search for approaches to secure assistance 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 An endgame was not forthwith in sight Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota is reaching for a last-minute agreement between those in his party worried the bill s reductions to Medicaid will leave millions without care and his majority conservative flank which wants even steeper cuts to hold down deficits ballooning with the tax cuts Thune declared at one point they were in the homestretch as he dashed through the halls at the Capitol only to backtrack a short time later suggesting any progress was elusive At the same time House Speaker Mike Johnson has signaled more feasible 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 I have prevailed upon my Senate colleagues to please please please keep it as close to the House product as doable reported Johnson the Louisiana Republican House Republicans had already passed their version last month 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 -page One Big Beautiful Bill Act as it s formally titled has consumed Congress as its shared priority with the president In a midnight social media post urging them on Trump called the bill perhaps the greatest and the greater part vital of its kind Vice President JD Vance summed up his own series of posts purely imploring senators to Pass the bill 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 soundness care and Sen Rand Paul of Kentucky who opposes raising the debt limit have indicated opposition Attention promptly turned to key senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine who have also raised concerns about healthcare care cuts but also a loose coalition of four conservative GOP senators pushing for even steeper reductions Murkowski in particular was the subject of the GOP leadership s attention as Thune and others sat beside her in conversation Then Paul drew eyes after he returned from a visit to Thune s office And on social media billionaire Elon Musk was again lashing out at Republicans as the PORKY PIG PARTY for including a provision that would raise the nation s debt limit by trillion which is needed to allow continued borrowing to pay the bills Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York stated his side was working to show how awful this is Republicans are in shambles because they know the bill is so unpopular Schumer disclosed as he walked the halls A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office ascertained million more Americans would become uninsured by if the bill became law The CBO mentioned the package would increase the deficit by nearly trillion over the decade Senators to watch Insufficient Republicans appear fully satisfied as the final package emerges in either the House or Senate Tillis commented it is a betrayal of the president s promises not to kick people off robustness care especially if rural hospitals close Collins had proposed bolstering the billion proposed rural hospital fund to billion but her amendment failed And Murkowski was trying to secure provisions to spare people in her state from several wellness care and food stamp cuts while also working to beef up federal reimbursements to Alaska s hospitals They have not stated how they would vote for the final package Radio silence Murkowski disclosed when petitioned At the same time conservative Senate Republicans proposing steeper wellbeing care cuts including Rick Scott of Florida Mike Lee of Utah Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming filed into Thune s office for a near-midnight meeting The Senate has spent selected hours churning through more than two dozen amendments in what is called a vote-a-rama a typically laborious process that went on longer than usual as negotiations happen on and off the chamber floor The White House legislative gang also was at the Capitol A scarce of the amendments to strike parts of the bill that would limit Medicaid funds to rural hospitals or shift the costs of food stamp benefits to the states were winning backing from a sparse Republicans though almost none were passing One amendment was overwhelmingly approved It would strip a provision barring states from regulating artificial intelligence if they receive certain federal funding It was approved - What s in the big bill All notified the Senate bill includes trillion in tax cuts according to the latest CBO analysis making permanent Trump s rates which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act while adding the new ones he campaigned on including no taxes on tips The Senate package would roll back billions of dollars in green potency tax credits which Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide It would impose trillion in cuts largely to Medicaid and food stamps by imposing work requirements on able-bodied people including specific parents and older Americans making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states Additionally the bill would provide a billion infusion for perimeter and national protection including for deportations certain of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants Democrats fighting all day and night Unable to stop the march toward passage the Democrats as the minority party in Congress are using the tools at their disposal to delay and drag out the process Democrats forced a full reading of the text which took hours and they have a stream of amendments Sen Patty Murray of Washington the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee raised particular concern at the start of debate late Sunday about the accounting method being used by the Republicans which says the tax breaks from Trump s first term are now current initiative and the cost of extending them should not be counted toward deficits She announced that kind of magic math won t fly with Americans trying to balance their own household books