Senate Republicans are sprinting on Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ after setbacks

Published On: July 1, 2025

By Joey Cappelletti, Kevin Freking, and Lisa Mascaro of the Associated Press

Washington (AP) Despite a number of obstacles, including the abrupt declaration by one Republican senator that he will not seek reelection after opposing the package due to its Medicaid health care cuts, the Senate will attempt to move quickly on Monday to pass President Donald Trump’s massive bill of tax breaks and spending cuts after a weekend of setbacks.

Known as a “vote-a-rama,” an all-night session to debate a never-ending stream of proposed amendments to the package was abruptly postponed, and it is again set to begin as soon as the Senate gavels open. The voting might last on all day since Democrats are unified against the Republican president’s measure and are ready to contest it.

The most difficult decisions for Republicans are yet to be made, according to New York Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer. In order for Republicans to defend their millionaire tax cuts and attempt to justify their significant Medicaid cuts to those back home, his team intends to introduce amendment after amendment to the floor.

The next few hours will be crucial for the Republicans, who control Congress and are rushing to finish their work before Trump’s Fourth of July deadline. Even if not all Republicans support it, the 940-page One Big Beautiful Bill Act, as it is now officially known, has taken over Congress as a joint priority with the president and has no political room to fail.

If the measure is passed into law, 11.8 million more Americans would lack health insurance by 2034, according to a recent analysis by the impartial Congressional Budget Office. Additionally, it stated that over the course of ten years, the plan would raise the deficit by almost $3.3 trillion.

If the legislation passes the Senate first, the leadership team of House Speaker Mike Johnson has ordered legislators back to Washington for a House vote as early as Wednesday.

However, the outcome is still up in the air, particularly following a work-filled weekend in the Senate that produced less obvious progress in gaining enough Republican support to pass despite Democratic resistance.

Watch the senators

With the release of the final package, few Republicans seem completely satisfied. GOP Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who declared on Sunday that he will not run for reelection after Trump harassed him for opposing the plan, claimed that he shares Trump’s objectives of reducing spending and taxes.

However, Tillis claimed that this package betrays the president’s pledges to keep people’s access to healthcare intact, particularly in the event that rural hospitals close.

He thundered, “We could take our time to get this right.”

Meanwhile, other loosely conservative Senate Republicans, like Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott of Florida, and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, have pushed for more drastic cuts, especially in health care, after receiving a warning from Trump.

Don’t lose your mind! Social media posts were made by the president. Remember that you need to be reelected.

In a dramatic scene on Saturday night, GOP leaders barely managed to garner enough support to push the proposal past a procedural barrier. It required phone calls from Trump and a visit from Vice President JD Vance to keep it on course after a few Republican holdouts rebelled.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, was the focus of intense conversation among GOP leaders as Saturday’s vote count teetered. She cast a yes vote.

The plan contains a number of elements that are referred to as the Polar Payoff, which is tailored for her state. These include a greater tax deduction for native whalers and possible waivers from food stamps or Medicaid adjustments. However, the Senate lawmaker discovered that some were not following the regulations.

What’s inside that large bill?

Overall, the Senate version includes almost $4 trillion in tax cuts, including the new ones he ran on, like tip-free taxes, and permanentizing Trump’s 2017 rates, which will expire at the end of the year if Congress does nothing.

By imposing work requirements, tightening sign-up eligibility, and altering federal reimbursements to states, the Senate package would eliminate billions of dollars in green energy tax credits that Democrats say will destroy wind and solar investments across the country. It would also impose $1.2 trillion in cuts, mostly to Medicaid and food stamps.

The package would also fund $350 billion for border and national security, including deportations, with some of that money coming from new fees that immigrants would have to pay.

Democrats are prepared to battle.

As the minority party in Congress, the Democrats are unable to halt the passage process and are utilizing all available tactics to prolong and postpone it.

Democrats compelled a 16-hour perusal of the entire text. Then, as Republicans mostly stayed out of the debate on Sunday, Democratic senators took over and filled the chamber with speeches.

Michigan Democrat Sen. Gary Peters called it careless and reckless.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, called it a gift to the billionaire class.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you is what the Bible says. Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., made this statement as the discussion on Sunday continued beyond midnight.

The Republicans’ accounting approach, which maintains that the tax breaks from Trump’s first term are now standard policy and that the expense of extending them shouldn’t be included in deficit calculations, particularly alarmed Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.

According to Murray, the longest-serving Democrat on the Budget Committee, “things have never worked this way in my 33 years here in the United States Senate.”

She claimed that Americans attempting to balance their own household budgets would not be amenable to that sort of magic math.

“Go back home and play that game with your constituents,” she said.