WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leaders are hoping to start voting on their massive domestic policy bill on Saturday, even as major pieces of it have yet to be finalized.
GOP senators held a lengthy lunch meeting Friday with House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as the process grows messy and acrimonious with a host of conflicting demands persisting within the party. Still, Republican leaders put members on notice that Senate votes were imminent.
“My expectation is: At some point tomorrow we’ll be ready to go,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said after the Friday meeting, although he wouldn’t say whether he has the 51 votes needed to begin debate.
“We’ll find out tomorrow,” Thune said, as Republicans race toward a self-imposed July 4 deadline to send the bill to President Donald Trump’s desk.
While senators have been told to be prepared for the first vote on Saturday at noon, Thune conceded that timing is “aspirational.”
Some senators complained that they hadn’t seen the text of the bill they’re being asked to vote on, with Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., predicting that it may not come out until “right before” the vote.
Others have vented about a host of provisions invalidated by the Senate parliamentarian as failing to comply with the chamber’s budget rules for bypassing the 60-vote threshold — including spending cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare and immigration-related provisions.
If the motion to proceed passes, that would trigger up to 20 hours of debate on the bill before a process where senators can offer unlimited amendments, known as a “vote-a-rama,” before a final vote.
Bessent told reporters Friday that Republicans are “very, very close” to agreement on how to resolve one of the big sticking points of the package: the state and local tax deduction cap.
The emerging plan is to impose a $40,000 “SALT” cap for just five years, instead of the 10 years in the House-passed legislation, according to Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D. That would lower the sticker price of the legislation as Republicans scramble to find ways to limit red ink.
“We’re getting really close to landing the plane,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who has been helping to negotiate a SALT deal between the White House, senators and House Republicans from high-tax blue states.
There also will be a fund to mitigate the pain of the bill’s Medicaid cuts for rural hospitals, senators said, though the size of it remained unclear. It’s expected to be larger than a proposed $15 billion.
Mullin said it was helpful to have Republican senators, Johnson and Bessent all in one room as they tried to hammer out unresolved issues.
“Having the speaker, having the secretary here, and having Thune in the room really put the leaders there to make the decisions and clarify a lot of things for us,” said Mullin, who also spent time with Trump at the White House Thursday night.
“The president has been extremely accessible,” he added. “Anybody that needed to call him could get ahold of him. He’s been fully engaged.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed Republicans’ plans to “jam it through” as early as this weekend, while citing recent polling data that shows the emerging bill is unpopular.
“Americans hate this bill,’ Schumer told reporters on Friday afternoon. “It steals their Medicaid. It jacks up their premiums. It takes away their jobs and gives trillions away to billionaires and special interests. So, of course Republicans are scrambling and rushing. They know their bill is terrible.”
Dubbed by Trump as the “one big, beautiful bill,” the sweeping package would extend the president’s expiring tax cuts passed in 2017, and it includes an infusion of money to expand the military, beef up border security and carry out his mass deportation plans. It would also fulfill two of Trump’s campaign promises: eliminating taxes on tips and overtime work.
The version of the bill the House passed in May is projected to add $2.4 trillion to the national debt over 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
If the Senate passes the bill, it will need to go back through the House before Trump can sign it into law. Trump contradicted himself on Friday about the July 4 deadline for passage. During a press conference, he said that Independence Day was “not the end all” for the bill. But just hours later, Trump took to Truth Social and clarified he wanted it done by next week.
“The Great Republicans in the U.S. Senate are working all weekend to finish our ‘ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL,'” Trump wrote. “The House of Representatives must be ready to send it to my desk before July 4th — We can get it done.”
Leaving the Senate lunch, Johnson said Republicans were getting “very close to a final product.” Asked if the July 4 deadline was still doable, Johnson replied: “I believe so.”
Some senators were more certain of meeting Trump’s deadline.
“We’re going to move forward. We’re going to pass this bill before July the 4th. We’re going to get it to President Trump’s desk,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who is close to Trump. “I’ve never been more confident of the bill passing than right now.”