Megabill in limbo with GOP senators locked in last-minute talks
A Senate vote on advancing Republicans' party-line domestic-policy bill has been held open for more than two hours as GOP leaders scramble for the final votes.
Vice President JD Vance arrived at the Capitol shortly after 8 p.m. to break a possible tie. Three Republican senators — Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — have already voted "no." A fourth GOP opponent would at least temporarily sink the megabill and likely foil plans to get it to President Donald Trump's desk by July 4.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Majority Whip John Barrasso, Finance Chair Mike Crapo and Budget Chair Lindsey Graham are meeting off the floor with Vance, Johnson and the three Republican holdouts — Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Rick Scott of Florida. The three are believed to be voting as a bloc; Lee and Scott have raised concerns about the level of spending cuts in the bill.
'We need more deficit reduction,' Lee said before the vote. Notably, he announced Saturday night he was dropping a provision to sell some public lands from the megabill amid intraparty opposition.
Thune was tight-lipped heading into the meeting saying only, "It's a long vote."
Earlier in the evening, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska made her fellow Republicans sweat, withholding her vote for nearly an hour while a gaggle of key leaders surrounded her on the Senate floor.
Murkowski, who had already secured major concessions for her home state, spent more than a half-hour in deep and sometimes animated conversations with Crapo, Graham, Barrasso and Thune, also talking separately to Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Curtis of Utah. At one point she held Vance's hand while she talked with him one-on-one in the back of the chamber.
Graham could be heard loudly saying that to 'start the process' would be 'best.' Eventually she voted to move forward with the bill, with a big smile, but only after she retreated into the cloakroom for additional conversations with leaders and committee chairs.
Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.
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