Trump megabill faces GOP holdouts amid marathon vote-a-rama
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) needs to nail down the support of multiple Republican senators, including at least two moderates and three conservatives, who haven’t yet said they will vote for final passage of President Trump’s megabill after a marathon series of amendment votes.
Senate Republicans are feeling mostly confident about passing Trump’s "big, beautiful bill," but the legislation still faces several obstacles.
Three conservatives — Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) — are pressing for the adoption of an amendment that would cut an additional $313 in federal Medicaid spending.
And at least two of them, Johnson and Scott, won’t say if they’ll vote for final passage if the amendment doesn’t succeed.
The amendment, which would stop the 9-to-1 federal match for Medicaid enrollees who are "able-bodied" and without dependent children in states that expanded the program, is unlikely to be adopted.
Multiple Republican senators, including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), have pushed hard against the Medicaid cuts already in the bill.
“I think that this effort to cut Medicaid funding is a mistake,” Hawley told reporters over the weekend.
“Frankly, my party needs to do some soul-searching. If you want to be a working-class party, you’ve got to deliver to working-class people. You cannot take away health care from working people,” he said.
Live updates: Democrats lose key appeal on Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ as........© The Hill
