WASHINGTON—The GOP-controlled Senate voted late Saturday to advance President Trump’s tax-and-spending megabill despite two Republican defections, narrowly clearing one procedural hurdle and offering a stark preview of the difficulties party leaders face in passing the sprawling measure.
The initial vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act was 51-49, with most Republicans in favor and all Democrats opposed, putting the Senate potentially on track to pass the bill by Monday after a day of debate and amendments. GOP Sens. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) and Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) broke with their party to vote against advancing the bill. The revised text of the 940-page Senate bill was released late Friday night and is likely to keep changing.
Trump wants the bill passed by the Senate and the House and on his desk by a self-imposed deadline of July 4.
Senators have been discussing the megabill for months, but the tense vote was the first real test of support. Republicans required more than three hours to wrangle all the votes to keep moving forward with the legislation, which carries the core of Trump’s agenda but also has provisions that irritate centrist and conservative GOP lawmakers.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R., Alaska), who has called for protecting clean-energy tax credits, negotiated on the Senate floor with Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R., Idaho) before voting yes. The final holdouts were Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, who want deeper spending cuts.
Johnson, who had earlier voted against advancing the bill, switched his vote and joined the others in voting “yes” at about 11 p.m. ET.
He said afterward that GOP leaders and Trump will back Scott’s proposal to cut off new enrollment for the Medicaid expansion that was part of Obamacare, where the federal government pays 90% of the cost of health insurance for some adults. The idea has drawn opposition from GOP moderates, however, and may not pass.
“We’re going to take one part of Obamacare that’s really done damage,” Johnson said.
The bill comprises permanent tax-cut extensions, new tax cuts, border and military spending along with spending reductions on Medicaid and nutrition assistance that represent Trump’s second-term priorities. Democrats oppose the bill, calling it a dangerous reduction of the social safety net combined with tax cuts for high-income households.
The Senate bill would reduce budget deficits by $508 billion—but only if you first assume that all the expiring tax cuts are extended permanently and have no cost, according to a Congressional Budget Office report late Saturday. On an apples-to-apples basis with the House bill, the Senate bill would likely increase deficits by about $3.3 trillion, up from $2.4 billion for the House version. That higher deficit figure is more than many House Republicans said they could stomach, raising further questions about the measure’s fate.
By 2034, the latest Senate bill would reduce the number of people with health insurance by 11.8 million, CBO said.
Republicans are using all the levers they have to build support, including policy changes and cajoling from Trump, who golfed with several senators early Saturday and met with others at the White House. Trump also criticized Paul and Tillis on Truth Social after their votes.
The latest version of the Senate bill offers a more generous deduction for state and local taxes—known as SALT—through 2029 than the previous Senate iteration. It gives states more time before lowering the ceiling on the so-called provider taxes used to enhance state Medicaid budgets and in turn attract federal matching funds.
The revised bill would also cut off tax credits for electric vehicles, solar and wind projects more quickly than the initial Senate version, in a blow to companies hoping their Republican senators could do more to shield them from an effort to roll back spending on EVs and renewable energy. It would impose a new excise tax related to the use of certain foreign components in renewable projects.
Paul opposed the bill because it increases the debt ceiling. Tillis said the Senate’s Medicaid cuts go too far, and the latest clean-energy changes also moved the bill away from his preferences.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) said he backed the bill despite opposing a Medicaid-funding formula change in it. He said his state would get increased Medicaid funding for the next few years due to a $25 billion special rural hospital fund designed to mitigate harmful effects from the bill and said he would fight in subsequent legislation to make sure that the postponed cuts don’t actually take effect.
Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine) voted to move ahead with the measure, though she said she hasn’t decided on whether to support the final bill. Collins, who has expressed concerns about the Medicaid cuts, also floated letting the top income-tax rate revert to its pre-2017 level of 39.6% at some high income level.
