The Senate worked through the night on President Donald Trump’s $3.3 trillion tax and spending package, with Republican leaders still negotiating with key GOP holdouts into the morning as lawmakers neared a vote expected Tuesday.
Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, a moderate concerned about Medicaid and green energy cuts, appeared to be the central focus of leaders’ attention early Tuesday. But she isn’t their only potential problem.
There are currently eight major Republican holdouts, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune can afford to lose only three senators and still pass the measure. Two — Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — have said they are solidly against it, leaving very little room for error as the South Dakota Republican tries to get to 50 votes on the package.
Senate aides huddled on the chamber floor Tuesday morning going line-by-line through last-minute revisions to the bill.
Murkowski, whose efforts to protect her home state from Medicaid cuts were rejected by the Senate ruleskeeper, had meetings both on and off the Senate floor throughout the night. She would not divulge early Tuesday whether she’d support the bill.
“The sun is up, I’m going to go have a cup of coffee,” Murkowski told reporters.
Murkowski had backed an effort to soften an aggressive planned phase-out of subsidies for wind and solar projects under Trump’s tax-and-spending package.
The amendment sponsored by Republican Joni Ernst of Iowa would also do away with a proposed new excise tax the Senate bill would slap on wind and solar projects that use components from China and other “foreign entities of concern.”
Ernst, carrying donuts through the Capitol on Tuesday morning, said she didn’t think her amendment would ultimately get a vote. The change would risk displeasing fiscal conservatives who have insisted on the more stringent requirements to qualify for the tax credits.
“I don’t think they’re going to let us” bring up the amendment, she told reporters. “There’s a lot of stuff that went on overnight that kind of waylaid a lot of our plans.”
Another moderate holdout, Susan Collins of Maine, said she still has “reservations” about the bill after the Senate all-nighter.
Democrats, angered by the Medicaid cuts in the bill, voted to defeat a Collins amendment that would have doubled the rural hospital fund in the bill to $50 billion, in exchange for a tax increase on some of the highest-earning Americans.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has been heavily involved in the negotiations, predicted on Fox News that the Senate would approve the legislation by Tuesday afternoon.
As leaders continue to twist arms on the bill itself, they also need to ensure they have enough votes on a final “wraparound” amendment tweaking the legislation ahead of a vote on final passage. Republican aides workshopped that amendment with the parliamentarian to determine whether changes adhere to the chamber’s rules to pass the bill along party lines.
Part of the calculus for Senate leaders is to strip language that could threaten the bill’s odds in the House, which is planning to vote on the Senate measure later this week. The House’s own version of the bill passed by a single vote.
The Senate’s deeper Medicaid cuts will put pressure on swing-district Republicans, while Freedom Caucus hardliners are angry that the Senate bill would contribute to larger deficits than the House-passed measure.
At least one New York Republican — Representative Nick LaLota — has said he’d vote against the bill over a compromise on the state and local tax deduction that he says doesn’t do enough to deliver savings to his district. LaLota had supported the House measure.
Yet so far, unlike in 2017, Trump has been able to corral his party at the end, with only a few willing to buck the pressure to vote for his signature legislation.
Trump, leaving the White House Tuesday morning, expressed optimism, telling reporters, “I think we’re going to get there. It’s tough. We’re trying to bring it down, bring it down so it’s really good for the country.”
