Politics
REPORT: Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Now Has The Votes To Pass The Senate
U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) announced on Tuesday that an overnight marathon session of negotiations, concessions, and arm-twisting has produced a slim majority of Republicans who have agreed to pass President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax cut bill as soon as Tuesday.
The window for passage of the bill before a self-imposed July 4 deadline is rapidly closing, and Thune now has just hours to marshal the votes on the floor of the Senate.
Asked by reporters how soon a vote could come, the South Dakota Senate leader predicted they may see a final vote in the next few hours.
“I believe we do,” he said when asked if the GOP has enough votes to overcome all-Democratic opposition.
He added: “I’m of Scandinavian heritage. Always a bit of a realist. So we’ll see what happens.”
Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) told reporters shortly after 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday morning that the first of four votes could occur in as soon a 15 minutes.
“There will be one amendment vote, and then there will be three votes that actually go to adopting the substitute and passage,” he said.
Hoeven predicted that Vice President J.D. Vance, himself a former member of the clubby Senate, will likely need to cast the tie-breaking vote.
“We’ll need him on the actual substitute bill,” Hoeven said of Vance.
News of a possible deal to secure passage comes more than 24 hours after the Senate opened its final round of debating. Monday saw Thune and his deputies negotiating with GOP holdouts like Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who appears to have secured a special “blubber bonus” tax cut for whale captains in her home state of Alaska, according to Politico.
In addition, a food stamp carveout intended to win over Murkowski was ruled eligible by the Senate parliamentarian, a Harry Reid appointee who has clashed with Senate Republicans and ruled other bill elements ineligible for the reconciliation process. The carveouts are intended only for Alaska and Hawaii, CNN reports.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), another moderate holdout who is up for reelection in 2026, expressed her reservations about parts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“I think the push is still to get it done today, but as I’ve said from the beginning, I have a lot of serious reservations about the bill,” she told reporters Tuesday morning.
“I’m going to wait till we’re done, know what direction we’re going in before announcing my decision,” she continued.
In a sign of how precarious Thune’s whip count remains, he was seen Tuesday morning huddling with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who has promised to be a “no” vote on the bill over its debt-ceiling hike. The Senate leader must also contend with a divisive amendment put forward by Florida Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL), which would scale back payments to states as part of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid coverage.
Scott predicted that the amendment would pass, but even other conservative Republican senators signaled their unease over trimming the healthcare of constituents back home.
“I don’t think that’s the president’s intention whatsoever,” said West Virginia Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV), who represents one of the states with the highest percentage of residents enrolled in the public healthcare program.