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Washington – The Republican leaders of the Senate hope to begin to vote on their Massive interior policy bill Saturday, even if the main parts have not yet been finalized.
The GOP senators organized a long lunch meeting on Friday with the president of the Mike Johnson room, R-La., And the secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, while the process becomes disorderly and acrimonious, with a host of persistent contradictory requests within the party. However, Republican leaders have notified members that the votes of the Senate were imminent.
“My expectation is: at one point, we will be ready to leave,” said the leader of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, Rs.d., after the Friday meeting, although he does not say if he had the 51 votes necessary to start the debate.
“We will discover it tomorrow,” said Thune, while the Republicans are heading for a self-imposed deadline on July 4 to send the bill to the office of President Donald Trump.
While the senators were invited to be prepared for the first vote on Saturday at noon, Thune conceded that the timing was “ambitious”.
Some senators have complained that they did not see the text of the bill on which they are invited to vote, with Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., Produce that he may not take out before “just before” the vote.
Others have evacuated to a multitude of provisions invalidated by the Senate parliamentarian as Do not comply With the budgetary rules of the Chamber to bypass the threshold of 60 vote – including discounts for Medicaid and Obamacare and the provisions related to immigration.
If the procedural motion adopts, this would trigger up to 20 hours of debate on the bill followed by a process where senators can offer unlimited amendments, called “voting-a-rama”, before a final vote.
Bessent told journalists on Friday that the Republicans are “very, very close” to the agreement on how to resolve one of the big collage points of the package: the state and local tax deduction ceiling.
The emerging plan is to impose a “salt” ceiling of $ 40,000 for only five years, instead of 10 years in the legislation adopted by the Chamber, according to Senator John Hoeven, RN.D. This would reduce the price of the legislation sticker while the Republicans rush to find ways to limit red ink.
“We get closer to the plane,” said senator Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., Who helped negotiate a salt agreement between the White House, the senators and the Republicans of the House of Blue States with high taxes.
There will also be a fund to alleviate the pain of the Medicaid Cups of the bill to rural hospitalsSenators said, although the size of it is not clear. It is expected that it is more than $ 15 billion proposed.
Mullin said it was useful to have republican senators, Johnson and besse in one room when they were trying to hammer unresolved problems.
“Having the speaker, having the secretary here, and having Thune in the room really put the leaders there to make decisions and clarifying a lot for us,” said Mullin, who also spent time with Trump in the White House on Thursday evening.
“The president was extremely accessible,” he added. “Whoever needed to call him could get it. He was fully committed.”
The head of the Senate minority, Chuck Schumer, Dn.y., criticized the plans of the Republicans of “Brouiller” from this weekend, while quoting Recent survey data This shows that the emerging bill is unpopular.
“The Americans hate this bill,” Schumer told journalists on Friday afternoon. “It steals their medicaid. It increases their premiums. This removes their work and gives billions of billions of billionaires and special interests. So, of course, the Republicans rush and rush. They know that their bill is terrible. ”
Nicknamed by Trump like the “Big and Beautiful Bill”, the sweeping package would extend the tax discounts expired by the president adopted in 2017 and includes a silver infusion to extend the military, strengthen border security and carry out its mass expulsion plans. He would also hold two of Trump’s campaign promises: eliminate taxes on advice and overtime.
The version of the bill The house is passed in May should add 2.4 billions of dollars to the national debt over 10 years, according to the Office of the Budget Non -Sample of the Congress.
If the Senate adopts the bill, it will have to return by the Chamber before Trump can sign it. Trump contradicts Friday about the deadline of July 4 for the passage. During a press conference, he said that the day of independence was “not the end of everything” for the bill. But a few hours later, Trump took Social truth And said he wanted it to be done next week.
“The great Republicans of the US Senate work all weekend to finish our, big, beautiful bill,” wrote Trump. “The House of Representatives must be ready to send it to my office before July 4 – we can do it.”
Leaving the Senate lunch, Johnson said that the Republicans approached “very close to a final product”. When asked if the deadline of July 4 was still feasible, Johnson replied: “I think yes.”
Some senators were more certain to respect the deadline of Trump.
“We are going to move forward. We will adopt this bill before July 4. We will return it to the office of President Trump,” said the president of the Senate budget committee, Lindsey Graham, Rs.C., who is close to Trump. “I have never been as confident as the bill is adopted as in the moment.”
