The Senate clerks finished reading aloud the entirety of the Senate GOP’s extensive tax and spending bill on Sunday afternoon. This action set the stage for the chamber to begin the countdown towards a final vote on the measure, anticipated to occur on Monday.
In an effort to postpone the bill’s passage, Democrats insisted that clerks vocalize all 940 pages of the legislation. This task took 15 hours and 55 minutes to complete, wrapping up shortly after 3 p.m. EDT.
“I objected to halt the Republicans from advancing with their massive, unpopular bill until every word was read to the American people,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) shared on the social media platform X on Saturday night.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) thanked the clerks.
“I would like to start by just taking a moment to thank the clerks, who stayed up all night reading the amendment and getting us to this point. I know it was a long night and that we’re not finished yet, but I want them to know the Senate appreciates their dedication, their stamina and their service,” he said.
The chamber will now begin up to 20 hours of debate, equally divided between the two sides, before an unlimited series of amendment votes known as a “vote-a-rama” is set to begin.
Republicans are expected to yield back much of their time, expediting the timeline for passage. That would mean the vote-a-rama would likely kick off in the early hours of Monday morning, setting up passage for sometime later in the day.
Members are able to offer as many amendments as possible as long as they are related to the tax package. All amendments must be voted on and dispensed with before GOP leaders are able to vote on final passage.
Republicans were able to scrounge together the votes needed to advance the bill on Saturday — after a long day of negotiations that continued as the vote was held open for more than three hours — but they still have work to do.
Two Republicans who voted against advancing the measure — Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.) and Rand Paul (Ky.) — are also expected to vote against the bill itself over Medicaid provisions and the inclusion of a $5 trillion debt ceiling hike.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), one of the conference’s foremost centrists, voted to advance the bill on Saturday but has not yet declared whether she will vote for final passage.
“That’s going to depend on whether the bill is substantially changed,” she said on Saturday. “There are some very good changes that have been made in the latest version, but I want to see further changes and I will be filing a number of amendments.”
Senate Republicans ran into trouble on Saturday as the vote was held open for nearly four hours after a foursome of conservatives — Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) — held out their support over what they view as too-generous Medicaid provisions in the package.
According to the conservatives, Thune and President Trump committed to back Scott’s proposal to lower the 90 percent federal matching share for new Medicaid enrollees in expansion states.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a top moderate, also held out her support for multiple hours over the proposed Medicaid the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cuts in the blueprint.
