Senate Republicans are in a sprint on Trump's big bill after a weekend of setbacks
WASHINGTON — After a weekend of setbacks, the Senate will try to sprint ahead Monday on President Donald Trump's big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts despite a series of challenges, including the sudden announcement from one GOP senator that he won't run for reelection after opposing the package over its Medicaid health care cuts.
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Yahoo
12 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Senate bill allowed to ‘defund' Planned Parenthood
A Senate GOP provision that would block Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood will remain in the massive tax and spending bill after the Senate parliamentarian on Monday advised the language does not violate the chamber's Byrd Rule. The ruling from Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough comes after Senate Republicans updated the provision late Friday night to change the timing of the 'defunding' from 10 years to one year. The bill's language doesn't specifically mention Planned Parenthood; it prohibits clinics and providers that offer abortions from accepting Medicaid for the other family planning and reproductive health care services they provide. But Planned Parenthood is the only organization that it applies to. The provision is estimated to cost taxpayers $52 million over the next 10 years, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). 'Republicans just got the green light to proceed with their destructive effort to defund Planned Parenthood health centers across the country—a crushing blow to the millions of women across America who rely on Planned Parenthood clinics for basic reproductive care,' Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a statement. 'Republicans' last-minute changes to shorten the timeline of this provision hardly matter—once health clinics lose funding and are forced to close their doors, they are unlikely to reopen again,' she added. The inclusion of the provision is a major victory for conservatives, who have long sought to cut off federal funding for the organization. But it could make it more difficult for on-the-fence Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to vote for the bill, as both have expressed support for abortion rights. Planned Parenthood has said losing Medicaid funding would put at least 200 health centers across the country at risk of closure — 90 percent of them in states where abortion is legal. More than 1 million low-income people would lose access to a health care provider. It follows a Supreme Court ruling last week that paves the way for red states to deny funding to Planned Parenthood. Medicaid is prohibited from paying for almost all abortions, but states want to cut government funding for other services Planned Parenthood provides as well. If the bill were to pass, the policy would be national. 'Republicans will stop at nothing in their crusade to take control of women's bodies and deny them the right to make their own health care decisions,' Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a joint statement. 'Republicans are trampling the law to force their extremist ideology onto the American people.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
15 minutes ago
- The Hill
Top Democrat questions ‘special treatment' for Alaska, Hawaii in GOP SNAP proposal
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee, questioned why only two states should receive 'special treatment' in a GOP-backed plan to reduce federal dollars for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the coming years. As part of a major package being considered in the Senate to advance President Trump's tax priorities, Republicans also include a major change that would require some states to cover a share of SNAP benefit costs, which are currently funded by the federal government, for the first time. Republicans are floating changes to that plan that would create special carveouts for Alaska and Hawaii amid internal GOP pushback. But senators signal the exemption could be at risk as Democrats question 'special treatment' for the states. 'On the SNAP side, as you know, they've shifted $64 billion to the states, of which 44 have balanced budget amendments,' Klobuchar argued on Monday. 'And we tried to stop that, because the states aren't going to be able to do this.' 'Two states, they threw in Hawaii, two states get this special treatment, and no one else, and so I just figure, if they get that treatment, maybe every other state should, you know, maybe we should be doing that for Wisconsin,' she told The Hill. 'Maybe we should be doing that for Iowa.' 'This cost shift to the states is the biggest cost shift in the bill,' she also said. Republicans are still waiting on a ruling from the Senate parliamentarian to see if the reworked proposal passes muster with the chamber's Byrd Rule. That decision, in turn, could be instrumental in whether Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will support the bill. Her comments come as Alaska's other senator, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R), is pointing fingers at Democrats as he says the exemption – which is aimed at helping shield Alaska from steep cuts to federal dollars for food assistance – hangs in the balance because of pushback from the other side of the aisle. Politico was first to report the news. '[Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and the Democrats are trying, once again, to strip a provision that helps Hawaii and Alaska's most vulnerable,' Sullivan told The Hill on Monday. 'Everything that we're trying to do for Alaska and Hawaii, Schumer and the Democrats strip it,' Sullivan said, while urging his Democratic colleagues to call to tell their leadership, 'Don't screw our provision that's just trying to make it a little less difficult on challenging communities to implement their SNAP requirements.' As part of the SNAP proposal, some states will cover a share of the cost of SNAP benefits if they have a payment error rate above 6 percent beginning in fiscal 2028. But in a change from a previous version of the SNAP proposal assembled by the Senate Agriculture Committee, the bill also includes a 'waiver authority' section that could allow for noncontiguous states, or Alaska and Hawaii, to see the requirements waived if they're found to be 'actively implementing a corrective action plan' and carrying out other activities to reduce their error rate. The update came after Alaska Republicans raised concerns over the GOP-crafted proposal. Republicans say the proposal is aimed at incentivizing states to get their payment error rates down, while Democrats have argued the measure could lead to states having to cut benefits. Figures recently unveiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found the state's payment error rate — which factors in overpayment and underpayment error rates — hit 24.66 percent in fiscal 2024. The rate is the highest in any state. The national average in the new reporting was 10.93 percent.
Yahoo
17 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trade talks with U.S. resumed on Monday morning, says Carney
The United States resumed trade negotiations with Canada Monday morning, after the federal government scrapped its tax targeting large technology firms. Prime Minister Mark Carney said he spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump on the phone Sunday evening. He said they decided to continue with negotiations, with the previously agreed-upon July 21 deadline still in mind. Carney said that the decision to remove the digital services tax (DST) "is part of a bigger negotiation" with the U.S. "It is something we expected, in the broader sense, that would be part of a broader deal," Carney told reporters Monday afternoon. He said it "doesn't make sense" to collect the tax now and have to remit it at a later House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the prime minister "caved" to Trump. "President Trump knows how to negotiate," said Leavitt. "It was a mistake for Canada to vow to implement that tax that would have hurt our tech companies here in the United States." Trump said Friday he was ending all U.S. trade discussions with Canada because of the DST, which would have seen companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb pay three per cent on revenues from Canadian users. With tax collection set to begin Monday, the policy would have left U.S. companies with a $2-billion US retroactive bill due at the end of the month. Despite the move, Canada is still in active discussions with G7 allies to introduce an international tax, with Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne leading that work, the PMO said.U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra told CBC's Power & Politics that the DST was a "red line" for the U.S. The tax caused Canada to "move from the front of the line to the back of the line" in Trump's negotiations with countries, but that Canada is now "back at the front of the line," he said. Hoekstra said he spoke to officials from both countries over the weekend about meeting the July 21 deadline. "I think both sides are optimistic that they can get to an agreement within that time frame," he said. "There's always something that can sidetrack it, but they both want to get to an agreement." U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick shared a statement on social media on Monday morning praising Canada's decision to scrap the tax. "Thank you Canada for removing your digital services tax, which was intended to stifle American innovation and would have been a deal-breaker for any trade deal with America," he wrote on X. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said on social media Monday that Carney put his "elbows down" by cancelling the tax "at the 11th hour." He said that the prime minister should insist the U.S. immediately rescind softwood lumber tariffs in exchange. "We need to make gains for our workers in these talks," Poilievre said on X.
