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John:
Hello from Capitol Hill.
While many of us were enjoying the beautiful weather over the weekend, the Senate was working. Liberal Senators exercised their right to ask for a reading of the text of the Big Beautiful Bill – nigh on 1,000 pages – delaying consideration of the bill by almost 16 hours. After reading through the dead of night to Sunday afternoon, the Senate took a moment to rest, and began voting on amendments on Monday morning. Budget reconciliation bills are subject to unlimited amendment votes in the Senate (referred to as vote-a-ramas) – the only limiting factor on vote-a-ramas is the stamina and resolve of the Senators, leading to marathon voting sessions. This particular vote-a-rama set the record for its quantity of amendment votes: Liberal Senators did everything they could to slow down the process and inflict difficult votes on their conservative colleagues. While analysts are still parsing the final details of Senate-passed version Big Beautiful Bill, the major contours are this: a massive boost to border funding, codification of Trump 45’s tax cuts, increased military funding, and a gargantuan debt limit increase.
While Senate leadership ultimately got its budget hawks in line (Senators Johnson, Lee, Rick Scott), four other senators ended up presenting the biggest roadblocks: Senators Paul, Tillis, Collins, and Murkowski (more on Tillis in a second). Senator Paul clearly telegraphed his opposition to the debt limit increase from the get-go: his no vote was guaranteed so long as the debt limit increase was in. Collins and Tillis expressed opposition to proposed Medicaid provisions, and ultimately could not be won over by Leader Thune. Senator Murkowski became the final swing vote, being subject to extensive whipping and negotiations from Senate leadership. Ultimately, some very Alaska-specific provisions were inserted into the bill, and Murkowski indicated her support. With Murkowski bringing the vote tally to a 50-50 tie, Vice President JD Vance broke the tie and sent the bill to the House. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson plans to begin a vote on the Big Beautiful Bill today. While the bill is expected to endure some debate in the House, President Trump expects a Big Beautiful law before the fireworks this Friday.
The most surprising product of the Big Beautiful Bill’s vote-a-rama is not an unexpected amendment vote, but the retirement of a Senator. Thom Tillis, who has voiced his opposition to the Medicaid changes that the Big Beautiful Bill would make, engendered President Trump to instigate a primary challenge to Senator Tillis. Shortly after, Tillis abruptly declared the termination of his reelection campaign. Senator Tillis is concerned that the Big Beautiful Bill would push hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians off Medicaid and force his state to pay an inordinate share of the program’s cost. This follows a long running, uneasy relationship with President Trump, and it seems to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. With so many of Trump’s legislative opponents falling (including Rep. Don Bacon), the question becomes: who else wants to stand in his way?
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One More Thing
Sincerely,
Jake Chebowski
Government Relations
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