Senate GOP leaders want to start voting on the “big, beautiful bill” in just two days. Right now, they’re scrambling to rewrite critical pieces of it while major policy disputes remain unresolved.
Catch up quick: Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) met separately with Donald Trump at the White House Monday as the president ramps up pressure on fiscal hawks to fall in line. Trump told Scott he wants a repeal of green credits under the Biden-era climate law and supports a balanced budget, the Florida senator said. The trio relayed Trump’s message to House Freedom Caucus members Monday night, but were publicly mum on other details.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) signaled progress in closing the chasm between chambers over the state-and-local-tax deduction, suggesting the Senate could keep the $40,000 cap negotiated in the House but change the income threshold. The rub: That combination was publicly rejected by the House’s SALT Republicans days ago.
Meanwhile, Senate GOP leaders are floating a fund to help offset the effects of Medicaid changes on rural hospitals — a major pain point among “Medicaid moderates” balking at Senate Finance’s push to slash the provider tax.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told reporters he’s “absolutely happy with a rural fund” but cautioned, “I don’t know” if it will solve the issue. House GOP leaders are also warning it won’t pass their chamber.
GOP senators also have to keep in mind the 38 House Republicans who recently warned that Senate Majority Leader John Thune must adhere to a strict linkage between spending cuts and tax cuts in the bill. House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) told POLITICO Monday he thinks Senate Republicans are already straying from the House-passed plan.
“It looks like right now, with some of the scoring, it’s not working out,” Harris said. “If it should pass the Senate in its current rumored form, it probably would have trouble in the House.”
What to watch Tuesday: Committees will finish holding meetings with parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough. Her last rulings on what can skirt the filibuster are expected as soon as Wednesday. Final text will follow once that process — known as the Byrd bath — wraps up.
Those Byrd droppings have multiple committees racing to redraft their portions of the megabill. Senate Agriculture Republicans believe they can salvage their cost-sharing plan for food aid. Senate Banking Republicans are reworking a proposal to cut funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
And Lee is now floating a narrower version of his plan to sell millions of acres of public lands after MacDonough deemed his initial proposal — which had drawn fierce opposition from a quartet of western-state GOP senators — noncompliant. Lee’s effectively halving his old proposal by removing Forest Service lands.
Thune still hopes to hold an initial vote on the megabill Thursday, but acknowledged the parliamentarian’s process is “taking a little bit longer” than anticipated. The raft of unresolved policy disputes have some senators openly doubting he can pull it off, with some predicting the first vote could slip to Friday.
“We’ll eventually pass something,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters Monday. “I just can’t tell you when.”
What else we’re watching:
— Dem Oversight election: Democrats will vote Tuesday morning to decide the top Democrat on the Oversight committee. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) is the frontrunner after the Californian clinched a majority of votes from the steering committee on the first ballot.
— War powers resolutions: Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told Speaker Mike Johnson that he will no longer advance a resolution seeking to block U.S. involvement in the Iran-Israel conflict if the ceasefire that Trump announced holds. But in the Senate, Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said he’s forging ahead with forcing a vote on a similar resolution regardless of the ceasefire, and expects a vote sometime between Wednesday and Friday.
— Cassidy’s latest vaccine push: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) criticized the top vaccine advisers of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Monday for lacking experience and urged the agency to delay a scheduled meeting with them. Cassidy said a meeting with the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices scheduled for Wednesday should not proceed “with a relatively small panel, and no CDC Director in place to approve the panel’s recommendations.”
Garrett Downs, Nicholas Wu, Hailey Fuchs and Kelly Hooper contributed to this report.
