Big beautiful bill update: Senate slogs through amendments

Senators offered more than a dozen amendments Monday to President Donald Trump’s megabill, following a weekend of tense negotiations on Capitol Hill to try to get the president’s second-term domestic priorities through the upper chamber.

The process, called a “vote-a-rama,” began shortly after 9 a.m. ET and continued well into the night, as senators slogged through individual votes on each amendment. Behind the scenes, Republican leadership worked to maneuver through a series of last-minute changes and shifting alliances.

A final vote on the package cannot occur until the vote-a-rama concludes and every senator has had the opportunity to introduce the amendments he or she wants to. Senate Majority Leader John Thune had predicted the process would finish up sometime late Monday night or early Tuesday morning.

As of 11:30 p.m. ET Monday night, however, Democratic senators showed no signs of wrapping up their long list of amendments and Republicans were still divided among themselves over what the final version should contain.

Throughout the day, Republicans had relied on their narrow majority to defeat repeated attempts by Democrats to alter the bill using amendments.

While the vote tally on the amendments fell largely along party lines, some Democratic-led revisions garnered Republican support and vice-versa.

Sen. Ed Markey, Mass., sought to remove language from the that would, as he put it, “force rural hospitals to limit their services or actually close their doors” due to cuts to Medicaid or Medicare. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska both crossed the aisle and voted with Democrats for Markey’s amendment.

Later in the day, four Democratic senators from battleground states — Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire — all voted with Republicans on an amendment that would cut Medicaid funding to states that provide benefits to undocumented immigrants who have been charged with certain crimes.

Senators are allowed to introduce unlimited amendments to a budget bill. Typically, the lion’s share of introduced amendments don’t make it into the final bill. But that’s not always the point.

Amendments are also frequently used to send a political message, or to highlight various senators’ opposition to, or support for, different parts of a big legislative package like this one.

For example, Democrats hope to force Republicans to cast individual votes in favor of some of the more controversial parts of the bill, like changes to Medicaid and ending tax credits for electric vehicles.

That record of a Republican senator’s support for a lighting rod issue can be used by Democrats in attack ads the next time that senator is up for reelection.

Republicans, by contrast, are using the amendment process in part to log their personal opposition to specific parts of the bill, even if they ultimately plan to vote in favor of its passage.

Meanwhile, the White House Monday continued to emphasize that it wants Republicans to get the bill passed and send it to Trump’s desk by July 4.

“We need the full weight of the Republican conference to get behind this bill and we expect them to, and we are confident that they will,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing for reporters.

Trump is also regularly talking with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Thune over the phone about the bill, a White House official told CNBC.

Leavitt told reporters that Trump had met in person with the two GOP leaders at the White House on Monday. But spokespeople for both Thune and Johnson later refuted that account.

Thune presides over a narrow, three-seat majority, so he can only afford to lose three votes in the final ballot and still pass the package with a tie-breaker vote from Vice President JD Vance.

Sens. Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky have already both confirmed they plan to vote against it.

In a sign of potential trouble for Thune, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., signaled Monday that he was not yet committed to backing the package.

Over the weekend, Johnson had voted to advance the bill to the Senate floor for final debate. But only after he switched his initial “No” vote to “Yes” at the last minute.

Even if Thune is able to get the bill through his chamber this week, it still faces an uncertain path in the House, where lawmakers must approve the revisions made by the upper chamber.

Some House Republicans have already signaled objections to changes in the Senate version of the legislation.

House Republican leadership, for its part, has told its members to prepare for votes on the package Tuesday or Wednesday, Politico reports.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.