U.S. Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-SD) speaks at a press convention following the U.S. Senate Republicans’ weekly coverage luncheon on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 10, 2025.
Kent Nishimura | Reuters
The Senate on Saturday cleared a key procedural hurdle to advance President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” bringing the large spending laws one step nearer to passage after weeks of painstaking negotiations.
The Senate vote delivered a lift for Republican Majority Chief John Thune’s bid to get the bill to Trump’s desk by July 4. Nevertheless it was not with out drama.
The vote on the movement to proceed was open for hours on Saturday evening, and solely handed after three Republican holdouts gave in and voted sure. The hours of uncertainty underscored the tough path ahead for the large bundle.
The procedural vote tees up a ultimate vote on the megabill within the Senate seemingly someday Sunday or Monday.
Democrats, led by Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, are forcing the 940-page invoice to be learn out loud as soon as it heads to full debate on the Senate flooring Sunday.
“We might be right here all evening if that is what it takes to learn it,” Schumer wrote Saturday on X.
Whereas the bundle can not formally move the higher chamber till the ultimate vote, the procedural vote was thought-about an enormous take a look at for Thune.
The vote comes after weeks of turmoil and stress over the large bundle that uncovered bitter policy disputes and emboldened some agency Republican holdouts.
The sweeping home coverage bundle will even should be handed once more within the Home, which simply narrowly passed its own version of the invoice final month.
Some Home Republicans have already expressed opposition to key parts of the Senate model of the invoice — most notably deep cuts to Medicaid — seemingly foreshadowing a detailed vote within the decrease chamber.
Each Thune and Home Speaker Mike Johnson maintain slim majorities of their respective chambers, that means they’ll solely afford to lose the help of a small variety of Republican lawmakers to move the bundle in a party-line vote.
In the meantime, Trump continues to urge lawmakers to get the bundle handed earlier than Republicans’ self-imposed July 4 deadline.
“President Trump is dedicated to protecting his guarantees, and failure to move this invoice can be the final word betrayal,” the White Home mentioned in a press release of administration coverage on Saturday.
That is breaking information. Examine again for updates.