President Donald Trump’s “large, lovely invoice” cleared a key procedural hurdle within the U.S. Senate late Saturday evening, pushing the large spending bundle one step nearer to the president’s desk.
The vote on a movement to proceed to ultimate debate on the invoice handed with 51 yeas and 49 nays. Each Democrat and two Republicans, Sens. Thom Tillis, N.C., and Rand Paul, Ky., voted in opposition to it.
The precise voting took hours and the measure solely handed after three Republican holdouts — Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott of Florida and Cynthia Lummus of Wyoming — folded and voted sure.
Sen. Ron Johnson, Wis., an outspoken critic of the invoice, in the end modified his vote to a “sure” from a “no.” That extra Republican vote gave the invoice 51 yeas, so Vice President JD Vance didn’t must forged a vote to interrupt a tie.
The last word vote was a victory for Republican Majority Chief John Thune, S.D., who has pledged to get the invoice to Trump for his signature by July 4.
Trump hailed the late-night vote passage and mentioned he was “VERY PROUD OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TONIGHT” in an all-caps, late-night Fact Social publish.
However the hours of uncertainty and last-minute wrangling underscore the tough path forward for the controversial bundle.
Saturday’s procedural vote tees up a ultimate Senate vote on the megabill that can doubtless occur someday Monday.
Democrats, led by Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, are forcing the 940-page invoice to be learn out loud as soon as it heads to full debate on the Senate flooring Sunday.
“We shall be right here all evening if that is what it takes to learn it,” Schumer wrote Saturday on X.
Whereas the bundle can’t formally cross the higher chamber till the ultimate vote, the procedural vote was thought-about an enormous check for Thune.
The vote comes after weeks of turmoil and pressure over the large bundle that uncovered bitter coverage disputes and emboldened some agency Republican holdouts.
Some Republican senators repeatedly balked on the invoice’s influence on the nationwide debt.
The Senate invoice may add greater than $3.9 trillion to the nationwide debt, based on a Congressional Funds Workplace evaluation.
The sweeping home coverage bundle can even need to be handed once more within the Home, which simply narrowly superior its personal model of the invoice final month.
Some Home Republicans have already expressed opposition to key components of the Senate model of the invoice — most notably deep cuts to Medicaid — doubtless foreshadowing a detailed vote within the decrease chamber.
Each Thune and Home Speaker Mike Johnson maintain slender majorities of their respective chambers, which means they’ll solely afford to lose the assist of a small variety of Republican lawmakers to cross the bundle in a party-line vote.
In the meantime, Trump continues to induce lawmakers to get the bundle handed earlier than Republicans’ self-imposed July 4 deadline.
“President Trump is dedicated to conserving his guarantees, and failure to cross this invoice can be the final word betrayal,” the White Home mentioned in a press release of administration coverage on Saturday.
