Önder Özar Diplomasi Sevgisi: The Washington Post Senate nears deal on Trump’s tax bill after voting all night, Thune says The bill would extend tax cuts from Trump’s first term and slash more than $1.1 trillion from Medicaid and other health-care programs. Updated - July 1, 2025 at 10:59 a.m. EDT21 minutes ago

The Washington Post

Senate nears deal on Trump’s tax bill after voting all night, Thune says

The bill would extend tax cuts from Trump’s first term and slash more than $1.1 trillion from Medicaid and other health-care programs.

Updated - July 1, 2025 at 10:59 a.m. EDT21 minutes ago

6 min

Summary

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) exits his office at the Capitol in Washington following a meeting late Monday. (Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post)

By Liz Goodwin, Theodoric Meyer and Jacob Bogage

Senate Republicans neared a deal to pass President Donald Trump’s massive tax and immigration agenda, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday, after a marathon 25-hour session during which the GOP struggled to secure support for the measure.

Trump has demanded that Congress send the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — his top legislative priority — to his desk by July 4, but that deadline seemed to be slipping from reach Tuesday. Even if the Senate passes the $3.3 trillion bill, House Republicans would still need to overcome their divisions and pass it again before Trump can sign it.

The legislation would extend tax cuts from Trump’s first term, cut more than $1.1 trillion from Medicaid and other health-care programs, and infuse billions of dollars into immigration enforcement and defense. It would also raise the nation’s borrowing limit, which Congress must do in the coming weeks to avoid default.

Republicans can lose only three GOP votes and still pass the measure. One holdout, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina), abruptly announced Sunday that he would not seek another term next year after Trump torched him for opposing the bill’s Medicaid cuts. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who is also up for reelection next year, has said she is also deeply concerned about the bill’s impact on health-care coverage. And Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has said for weeks that he will not support the measure because it lifts the nation’s borrowing limit by too much without cutting spending adequately.

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Eager to avoid any more defections, Republicans loaded the bill up with benefits for Alaska to appease Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), a moderate who has said she is concerned about the measure’s potential impact on her state.

The legislation appeared tailored to win her vote, including special carve-outs for Alaska on Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the anti-hunger program formerly known as food stamps. It also included tax benefits for whaling captains and Alaskan fishermen. But the Senate parliamentarian excised the Alaska-focused Medicaid measure from the bill on Monday, determining that it violates the rules of the special Senate process that Republicans are using to pass the bill with a simple majority and dodge a Democratic filibuster.

“Radio silence,” Murkowski told reporters when asked early Tuesday whether she would support the bill.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), left, and Lisa Murkowski walk to the Senate chamber early Tuesday. (Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post)

Molly, a 7-month-old dog of a Senate staff member, runs through the Dirksen Senate Office Building early Tuesday. (Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post)

Thune (R-South Dakota) and Sen. John Barrasso (Wyoming), the No. 2 Senate Republican, spent hours talking with her Monday night and Tuesday morning on the Senate floor.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Thune spent more than half an hour in deep conversation with Murkowski standing on the Senate floor near one of the doors shortly after 5 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday. Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and two aides joined at times.

“I can’t vote for this,” Murkowski said one point, although it was unclear whether she was referring to the bill or a proposed change to it.

Thune and other leaders also met with Paul in Thune’s office to gauge whether his vote might be movable. Paul has said he would support the legislation if the debt ceiling were raised by $500 billion instead of $5 trillion, which he hopes would force Republicans to find more spending cuts when the federal government hit its borrowing limit again in a few months. Trump has been adamant with lawmakers he wants the larger debt-ceiling hike included in the bill, to push the next politically toxic vote on the issue beyond the 2026 midterm elections.

Murkowski has opposed Trump on big votes before, joining Collins and then-Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) to doom his repeal of the Affordable Care Act during his first term.

Asked after meeting with Murkowski in his office a little before 4 a.m. whether he could pull the vote, Thune told reporters, “Those are options I don’t even want to have to worry about.”

Murkowski, Collins, Paul and Tillis aren’t the only Republicans with reservations about the bill. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) and other deficit hawks have objected that the bill does not cut spending steeply enough to help offset the costs of the tax cuts.

The bill’s nearly $170 billion for the Trump administration’s border and immigration crackdown would be the one of the largest sums ever spent on homeland security. It also includes roughly $160 billion for the Defense Department, partially for Trump’s proposed “Golden Dome” continental missile defense system.

Republicans started working on the bill last year shortly after Trump won and Republicans gained the Senate majority in the November election. They pledged to dramatically reduce government spending along with annual deficits, wary of adding to a national debt of more than $36 trillion. But some Republicans believe the bill’s cuts do not go far enough.

Elon Musk, the billionaire and former White House adviser who broke with Trump after criticizing the bill, pledged Monday to try to defeat Republicans who vote for the bill and who campaigned on cutting government spending.

Those Republicans “will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth,” Musk wrote on X. He also said he would support Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky), whom Trump has threatened with a primary for voting against the bill last month.

Much of Trump’s 2017 tax law are set to expire at the end of the year. That law cut rates for virtually all taxpayers, although it concentrated the most benefits among wealthy individuals and corporations. Most Americans will pay more next year if Congress does not extend them. Republicans broadly support an extension.

But some Republicans have balked at voting for legislation that the Congressional Budget Office estimates will cause more than 11 million people to lose their health-care coverage. Tillis warned that Trump’s pledge that the bill would not cut Medicaid benefits would be proved as false as President Barack Obama’s promise after the passage of the Affordable Care Act that Americans who liked their health-care plans could keep them.

“The effect of this bill is to break a promise,” Tillis said Sunday on the Senate floor.

A Capitol Police officer opens a door to the Capitol for Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) as the sun rises Tuesday in Washington. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

What readers are saying

The comments overwhelmingly criticize the proposed Senate bill, highlighting concerns about tax cuts favoring the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class, and the potential reductions in Medicaid. Many commenters express frustration with Republican lawmakers, accusing... Show more

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By Liz Goodwin

Liz Goodwin covers Congress for The Washington Post. Before joining The Post in 2022, Goodwin covered national politics and served as Washington bureau chief for the Boston Globe. Send her secure tips on Signal at lizgoodwin.05.follow on X@lizcgoodwin

By Theodoric Meyer

Theodoric Meyer covers the Senate for The Washington Post.follow on X@theodoricmeyer

By Jacob Bogage

Jacob Bogage covers economic policy in Congress for The Washington Post, where he's worked since 2015. Contact him securely on Signal: jacobbogage.87. follow on X@jacobbogage

Önder Özar Diplomasi Sevgisi

Tuesday, July 1, 2025

The Washington Post Senate nears deal on Trump’s tax bill after voting all night, Thune says The bill would extend tax cuts from Trump’s first term and slash more than $1.1 trillion from Medicaid and other health-care programs. Updated - July 1, 2025 at 10:59 a.m. EDT21 minutes ago

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