The Senate took another step toward passing what President Donald Trump calls his “big, beautiful bill” after a late-night vote on Saturday, June 28. However, with a looming deadline and some Republicans against the legislation, it’s still not a done deal.
One of the Republicans who voted not to advance the bill, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, announced on Sunday, June 29 that he will not be seeking re-election after facing attacks from Trump.
“In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,“ Tillis said in a statement, according to Politico.
The Associated Press detailed what it called “tense scenes” in the chamber during the more than three-hour period when voting came to a standstill and senators had negotiations and private meetings. Two Republicans, Tillis and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, ultimately rejected the motion to proceed with the bill in what was otherwise a party-line vote. Vice President J.D. Vance was at the Capitol on Saturday night so he could break a potential tie.
“VERY PROUD OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TONIGHT. GOD BLESS YOU ALL!” Trump wrote on social media after the Senate approved advancing the bill with a 51-49 vote. The bill implements key parts of Trump’s agenda, including extending his 2017 tax cuts from his first term and more money for a border wall and immigration detention centers.
Before the vote, the Senate parliamentarian looked at the bill to see if it would violate the “Byrd rule.” The rule, named after late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, a Democrat from West Virginia, lets the parliamentarian flag some provisions as “non-budget related,” which would require it to get 60 votes.
While some parts of H.R. 1 were found not to comply with the Byrd rule, Republicans were able to revise and reinstate those proposals. These include Medicaid cuts that had initially been removed by the parliamentarian earlier.
Doubts about the bill
According to Congressional Budget Office estimates, 10.9 million people would not have health care under the version of the bill passed by the House. A new analysis released on Sunday, June 29 shows that the Senate’s version could cause 11.8 million Americans to become uninsured in 2034.
In a statement explaining his “no” vote on the bill, Thillis said “the Senate version of the One Big Beautiful bill contains significant changes to Medicaid that would be devastating to North Carolina, and I cannot support it.”
“It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities,” Tillis said. “This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population.”
Trump slammed Tillis on Truth Social for these remarks, calling him a “talker and complainer, NOT A DOER!”
“He’s even worse than Rand “Fauci” Paul!” Trump added.
Even Elon Musk, a former White House special employee with the Department of Government Efficiency, said “the latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!”
Formerly considered “holdouts,” Republican Sens. Ron Johnson, from Wisconsin; Mike Lee of Utah; Florida’s Rick Scott; Josh Hawley of Missouri and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming ultimately voted “yes” on proceeding with the bill.
What comes next?
NPR reported that Senate Democrats asked for a full reading of the bill, which is almost 1,000 pages, on the floor, per Senate rules. Then, both sides would get 10 hours each to debate the bill. After that, senators would start a series of amendment votes, an event known as “vote-a-rama.”
Trump has set a deadline of July 4 for the bill’s passage.
