Debate is underway in the Senate on Trump’s big bill, but overnight voting is delayed

WASHINGTON AP Debate has been underway in the Senate late into the night with Republicans wrestling President Donald Trump s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts over mounting Democratic opposition and even selected brake-pumping over the budget slashing by the president himself The outcome from the weekend of work in the Senate remains uncertain and highly volatile and overnight voting has been pushed off until Monday GOP leaders are rushing to meet Trump s Fourth of July deadline to pass the package but they barely secured enough encouragement to muscle it past a procedural Saturday night hurdle in a tense scene A handful of Republican holdouts revolted and it took phone calls from Trump and a visit from Vice President JD Vance to keep it on track GOP Sen Thom Tillis of North Carolina declared Sunday he would not seek reelection after Trump badgered him for saying he could not vote for the bill with its steep Medicaid cuts A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office exposed that million more Americans would become uninsured by if the bill became law It also explained the package would increase the deficit by nearly trillion over the decade But other Senate Republicans along with conservatives in the House are pushing for steeper cuts particularly to soundness care drawing their own unexpected warning from Trump Don t go too crazy the president posted on social media REMEMBER you still have to get reelected All explained the Senate bill includes certain trillion in tax cuts making permanent Trump s rates which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act while adding the new ones he campaigned on including no taxes on tips The Senate package would roll back billions in green power tax credits that Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide and impose trillion in cuts largely to Medicaid and food stamps by imposing work requirements and making sign-up eligibility more stringent Additionally the bill would provide a billion infusion for frontier and national safeguard including for deportations certain of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants If the Senate can pass the bill it would need to return to the House Speaker Mike Johnson has explained lawmakers to be on call for a return to Washington this week Democrats ready to fight all night Unable to stop the march toward passage of the -page bill the Democrats as the minority party in Congress is using the tools at its disposal to delay and drag out the process Democrats forced a full reading of the text which took various hours Then senators took over the debate filling the chamber with speeches while Republicans largely stood aside Reckless and irresponsible declared Sen Gary Peters of Michigan A gift to the billionaire class declared Sen Bernie Sanders of Vermont Sen Patty Murray the ranking Democrat on the Appropriations Committee raised particular concern about the accounting method being used by the Republicans which says the tax breaks from Trump s first term are now current procedures and the cost of extending them should not be counted toward deficits In my years here in the United States Senate things have never never worked this way disclosed Murray the longest-serving Democrat on the Budget Committee She revealed that kind of magic math won t fly with Americans trying to balance their own household books Go back home and try that contest with your constituents she declared We still need to kick people off their fitness care that s too expensive We still need to close those hospitals we have to cut costs And we still have to kick people off SNAP because the debt is out of control Sanders announced Tillis decision not to seek reelection shows the hold that Trump s cult of personality has over the GOP We are literally taking food out of the mouths of hungry kids Sanders announced while giving tax breaks to Jeff Bezos and other wealthy billionaires GOP leaders unfazed Republicans are using their majorities to push aside Democratic opposition and appeared undeterred even as they have run into a series of political and approach setbacks We re going to pass the Big beautiful bill disclosed Sen Lindsey Graham R-S C the Budget Committee chairman The holdout Republicans remain reluctant to give their votes and their leaders have almost no room to spare given their narrow majorities Essentially they can afford three dissenters in the Senate with its - GOP edge and about as a multitude of in the House if all members are present and voting Trump who has at times allowed wiggle room on his deadline kept the pressure on lawmakers to finish He threatened to campaign against Tillis who was worried that Medicaid cuts would leave multiple without vitality care in his state Trump badgered Tillis again on Sunday morning saying the senator has hurt the great people of North Carolina Later Sunday Tillis issued a lengthy announcement announcing he would not seek reelection in In an impassioned evening speech Tillis shared his views arguing the Senate approach is a betrayal of Trump s promise not to kick people off physical condition care We could take the time to get this right he thundered But until then he commented he would remain opposed Democrats can t filibuster but can stall Using a congressional process called budget reconciliation the Republicans can rely on a simple majority vote in the Senate rather than the typical -vote threshold needed to overcome objections Without the filibuster Democrats have latched on to other tools to mount their objections One is the full reading of the bill text which has been done in past situations Democrats also intended to use their full hours of available debate time which was underway And then Democrats are prepared to propose dozens of amendments to the package a process called vote-a-rama But Republicans late Sunday postponed that expected overnight session to early Monday GOP senators to watch As Saturday s vote tally teetered attention turned to Sen Lisa Murkowski R-Alaska who was surrounded by GOP leaders in intense conversation She voted yes Several provisions in the package are designed for her state in Alaska but specific were out of compliance of the strict rules by the Senate parliamentarian A short time later Majority Leader John Thune R-S D drew holdouts Sen Rick Scott of Florida Mike Lee of Utah and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming to his office Vance joined in Later Scott announced We all want to get to yes Associated Press writers Ali Swenson Fatima Hussein and Michelle L Price contributed to this description Source