Senate GOP looks for votes to pass budget bill while Democrats pound away
Published in Political News
Sometime Tuesday, Republicans in the U.S. Senate are expected to call for a vote on the “big, beautiful bill” championed by President Donald Trump, which would extend tax cuts and slash federal spending on safety net programs.
The vote has been delayed as Republican leaders try to convince holdouts in their party to back the measure.
The chamber has spent nearly the past 24 hours considering dozens of amendments. Most of them have been filed by Democrats which failed on mostly party-line votes, but they allowed Democrats to rail against the nearly 1,000-page package and highlight provisions they say will benefit the rich while hurting the poor.
“This bill is an unmitigated catastrophe for Georgia,” U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff said in an interview Monday. “It is a disaster for Georgians’ health care. It is a disaster for Georgia industry. And it will add trillions of dollars to the national debt.”
Ossoff unsuccessfully attempted to pass an amendment that would have added language to the bill reauthorizing certain Affordable Care Act tax credits that are currently being allowed to expired.
His colleague and fellow Atlanta Democrat, U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, introduced an amendment that would have restored clean energy tax credits that Republicans are eliminating in the bill. That also failed.
Warnock, Ossoff and the other 45 members in the Democratic caucus are expected to oppose the legislation. The question is how many Republicans will join them.
At least two appear likely: U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has said for months that he believes the bill adds too much to the federal deficit and is opposed. U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina opposes the Medicaid and green energy cuts.
If three Republicans vote “no,” Vice President JD Vance could cast a tiebreaking vote to allow the bill to pass. He made an unscheduled appearance at the Capitol this morning to meet with senators.
If four or more GOP lawmakers vote with Democrats, the bill likely fails.
However, because Trump has been so vocal about wanting the legislation to be approved before the July Fourth holiday, Senate Republicans expect to get at least 50 of their members to a “yes.”
If that happens, the bill bounces back to the House — which narrowly approved a different version in May. Some of the changes made in the Senate, such as steeper cuts to Medicaid and a softer phaseout of clean energy incentives, might make it harder for House Republicans to support the bill.
The Senate bill also adds about $1 trillion more to the national debt than the House version, angering many fiscal conservatives.
Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde said he is waiting to see what comes out of the Senate before he decides how he will vote later this week when the House is expected to take up the measure.
Clyde, who represents northeast Georgia, fought for provisions removing taxes and regulations on gun silencers to be added to the House bill. The Senate bill initially went even further by also deregulating short-barrel shotguns and other types of firearms. But all of that language was taken out after the Senate parliamentarian ruled the provisions cannot remain in the larger bill if Republicans want to pass it without facing the 60-vote filibuster.
Clyde, R-Athens, is also unhappy that the clean energy tax credits won’t be phased out as quickly in the Senate bill compared to what the House approved.
While Clyde’s support is uncertain, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is likely to back the bill now that the Senate stripped out language prohibiting states from regulating artificial intelligence for 10 years. Removing the provision had nearly universal support and was approved 99-1 with only Tillis in opposition.
Greene, R-Rome, had supported the bill during the May vote, but said she was unaware of the AI language and would not support the bill moving forward unless that provision was removed.
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