Senate Republicans voted 51-49 late Saturday night to advance President Trump’s sweeping tax and spending legislation, a major procedural step that paves the way for an intense weekend of negotiations, debate, and amendment votes aimed at final passage before July 4. Despite days of internal disputes and lingering objections, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is pushing to secure Trump’s priorities, including tax reform, raising the debt ceiling, boosting military funding, and tightening border security.
In the end, all Republicans except Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina voted in favor of moving the bill forward. However, several GOP senators held out for hours, keeping the vote open for more than three hours while they sought concessions from party leaders. Senators Ron Johnson, Mike Lee, Rick Scott, and Cynthia Lummis were among those negotiating directly with leadership and Vice President JD Vance. Johnson later confirmed that one of the deals involved a commitment to hold a vote on an amendment aimed at reducing the federal Medicaid match for certain new enrollees a proposal Scott has championed.
Democrats, meanwhile, responded by forcing the full 940-page bill to be read aloud on the Senate floor, a move that could consume over 10 hours. That will be followed by extended debate and a marathon series of amendment votes known as a vote-a-rama before the bill can be finalized.
Senator Marsha Blackburn is expected to introduce an amendment eliminating a temporary pause on state-level AI regulation. The measure is likely to pass, with support from fellow Republicans like Josh Hawley, who have also criticized the pause. Senator Mike Lee, during the vote, announced he would withdraw his proposal to sell federal public lands to private housing developers after facing opposition from GOP colleagues including Steve Daines and Mike Crapo.
Earlier in the day, President Trump ramped up pressure on senators by issuing a formal statement calling the bill essential to fulfilling his campaign promises. “President Trump is committed to keeping his promises, and failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal,” the message read. Senators spent the day receiving phone calls from Trump, as well as attending lunches and golf outings with him as the White House worked to shore up support.
The latest version of the legislation includes several key revisions aimed at building consensus. It delays the implementation of a controversial reduction in Medicaid provider taxes in expansion states. It raises the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000 for five years, after which it would revert to the original cap. The bill also includes a $25 billion fund to support rural hospitals, up from $15 billion in earlier drafts, to ease concerns about the impact of Medicaid cuts on rural health systems. Additionally, it accelerates the phase-out of certain green energy tax credits that had been part of the original Senate draft.
