Senate Republicans are down to the wire on Trump’s tax bill
Senate Republicans are down to the wire on Trump’s tax bill

Senate Republicans are down to the wire on Trump’s tax bill

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Senate Republicans are down to the wire on Trump’s tax bill

Senate Republicans are preparing to advance President Donald Trump’s mammoth tax and immigration agenda. Their compromise still may not be sufficient to satisfy conservatives in the House. Republicans proposed steep cuts to Medicaid, the state and federal health insurance program for low-income individuals and disabled people; and SNAP, the anti-hunger program formerly known as food stamps. But those provisions, as well as a break for taxpayers in high-tax states, have bitterly divided the GOP. The House would raise the cap to $40,000 for taxpayers earning no more than $500,000, but the Senate did away with the deal entirely, leaving the deduction untouched at $10,000 — an amount set by Republicans in 2017 to reduce the cost of Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The Senate parliamentarian, the nonpartisan official charged with enforcing the chamber’s legislating rules, held Thursday that the provider tax policy violated the strict guardrails that define budget reconciliation. Republicans hope to resolve that by gradually implementing provider tax limits and seeding a hospital bailout fund.

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After months of fierce debate, Senate Republicans are preparing Saturday to advance President Donald Trump’s mammoth tax and immigration agenda — though their compromise still may not be sufficient to satisfy conservatives in the House. The GOP is set to unveil its version of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act — legislation to extend nearly $4 trillion of tax cuts, enact campaign promises such as no tax on tips, fund the White House’s mass deportation drive and begin building Trump’s “Golden Dome” missile defense system — to tee up a crucial procedural vote.

To offset the bill’s cost, Republicans proposed steep cuts to Medicaid, the state and federal health insurance program for low-income individuals and disabled people; and SNAP, the anti-hunger Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program formerly known as food stamps.

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But those provisions, as well as a break for taxpayers in high-tax states, have bitterly divided the GOP.

Senators emerged from a Friday lunch with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) appearing optimistic about a deal. Saturday’s vote will put that to the test.

“Mike is nervous as a pregnant nun right now,” Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-Louisiana) said Friday of the speaker. “He doesn’t know if he can get what we’re doing past his House.”

Republicans are using the budget reconciliation process to bypass a potential Democratic Senate filibuster. Lawmakers will first vote to begin debate on the legislation, then face a potential all-night blitz of amendment votes, including Democratic proposals designed to dent the bill or damage politically vulnerable GOP senators.

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Only then can the Senate vote on the package and send it back to the House, where significant disagreements remain.

Senate tax-writers hope to impose strict limits on Medicaid provider taxes, duties that states charge medical providers as a roundabout way of collecting more federal Medicaid dollars. Some in the GOP wish to use that policy to force states to jettison immigrants from benefits rolls, leaving other lawmakers concerned about the finances of rural hospitals, which rely heavily on Medicaid patients.

But the Senate parliamentarian, the nonpartisan official charged with enforcing the chamber’s legislating rules, held Thursday that the provider tax policy violated the strict guardrails that define budget reconciliation.

Republicans hope to resolve the parliamentarian’s concerns by gradually implementing provider tax limits and seeding a hospital bailout fund with more than $15 billion for institutions adversely affected by the policy, lawmakers said Friday.

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Two Republicans who have voiced concerns about the bill’s Medicaid provisions, Sens. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), could be spotted huddled with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) Friday evening on the Senate floor.

Murkowski is under pressure from state lawmakers to reject the bill. Bryce Edgmon, an independent who is speaker of Alaska’s House of Representatives, and Cathy Giessel, a Republican who is majority leader of Alaska’s Senate, warned Friday that the bill could cause nearly 40,000 Alaskans to lose health care coverage.

Another Republican who has expressed alarm about potential Medicaid cuts, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), said Friday he had not decided whether he would vote to advance the bill.

The state and local tax deduction, or SALT, is a priority issue for a band of blue-state House Republicans. That deduction allows itemizing filers to write off what they paid in local taxes from their federal tax return.

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The House would raise the cap to $40,000 for taxpayers earning no more than $500,000. The Senate before Friday did away with the deal entirely, leaving the deduction untouched at $10,000 — an amount set by Republicans in 2017 to reduce the cost of Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

But exiting the meeting, lawmakers offered a deal that would raise the cap to $40,000 for five years, then reset it to $10,000, and suggested that the House speaker had buy-in from his chamber on the agreement.

“Speaker Johnson is remarkable. I mean, the guy’s pulled a rabbit out of his hat I don’t know how many times,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) said. “Now, if he’s coming over here and telling us that’s the best he can do — well, we want zero [SALT deductions], but if that’s the best he can do — then we may have to go with it.”

Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma), who has served as a liaison to the House, said the Senate offer was a proposal neither side loved, but that both might be able to live with.

Source: Washingtonpost.com | View original article

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/06/28/trump-big-bill-senate/

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