Hours of debate will be followed by likely hours of voting on what could be dozens of amendments.
The Senate is getting closer to voting on President Donald Trump’s package of legislative priorities as Republicans try to thread the needle for tax cuts, Medicaid reforms and border security funding with a narrow majority.
Senators are currently debating the bill in a process that could last up to 20 hours. Next, they’ll begin voting on what is expected to be dozens of amendments in a process nicknamed a “vote-a-rama” that could last hours longer.
The legislation cleared a key hurdle late Saturday night, receiving a tight 51-49 vote in the Senate that took more than three and a half hours while a handful of Republicans negotiated with Senate leaders, Trump and Vice President JD Vance
Still, that wasn’t the final passage the bill needs to head to Trump’s desk. Instead, after the vote, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, forced Senate clerks to read the entire 940-page bill rather than customarily waiving that chore.
Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, has said he is uncertain whether enough Republicans will support the final version of their bill to send it back to the House. Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina were the only Republican votes against debating the bill as written.
“We’ll find out,” Thune said.
Here is what has happened so far:
After the bill is read
The Senate clerk has finished reading the 940-page, foot-high Senate version of the Trump-backed bill. Next, there will be up to 20 hours of debate split evenly between the parties.
Democrats are expected to use up most of their time, while Republicans are not. Once that is complete, the Senate will begin hearing potential amendments to the bill, most of which will likely fail.
A final vote on the bill is expected June 30 at the earliest.
– Sarah D. Wire
Tillis won’t seek reelection
Tillis, one of the Republican senators who voted against moving Trump’s legislation forward, announced that he will not seek reelection in 2026.
“As many of my colleagues have noticed over the last year, and at times even joked about, I haven’t exactly been excited about running for another term,” he said, adding that retiring in a divided time for the nation was “not a hard choice.”
Trump tax-cut bill could add $3.3 trillion to debt
The Congressional Budget Office, an independent, nonpartisan referee that analyzes the impact of legislation, said June 29 that Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill would add $3.3 trillion to the nation’s debt over a decade.
The office previously found that Trump’s plan would increase resources for middle and top earners at the expense of lower-income Americans.
– Medora Lee, Reuters
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