Senators on Monday began offering amendments to President Donald Trump’s megabill, following a weekend of tense negotiations to try to get the president’s second-term domestic priorities through the upper chamber.
The process, called a “vote-a-rama,” began shortly after 9 a.m. ET, and it was not yet clear how long it could go on. Eight hours or more is not unusual.
Senators are allowed to introduce an unlimited number of amendments to the budget bill, forcing the chamber to cast back-to-back votes.
Some Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, have already signaled that they intend to file “a number of amendments.”
The majority of the amendments won’t win the necessary 50 votes to get into the bill. But that’s not always the point. For many of the amendments, the purpose is to send a political message and to highlight various senators’ opposition to, or support for, different pieces of the massive package.
For example, Democrats will aim to force Republicans to cast votes on the record in favor of some of the more controversial parts of the bill, like Medicaid work requirements and the end of tax credits for electric vehicles.
The “vote-a-rama” was initially set to begin late Sunday or early Monday following hours of debate on the 940-page package, but senators pushed the votes to Monday morning.
Lawmakers worked through the weekend to try to get Trump’s bill across the finish line as Republicans’ self-imposed July 4 deadline looms.
Republicans eked out a key procedural win late Saturday, with just two GOP senators — Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky — voting against a motion to advance the bill.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota is presiding over an extremely narrow majority, so he can only afford to lose one more vote in the final ballot — in addition to Tillis and Paul — and still pass the package.
But even if Thune is able to get the bill through his chamber, it faces an uncertain path in the House, where lawmakers must approve the revisions made by the upper chamber.
Some House Republicans have already signaled objections to changes in the Senate version of the “big, beautiful bill.”
House Republican leadership, for its part, has told their members to prepare for votes on the package Tuesday or Wednesday, Politico reports.
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