NC Republican Sen. Thom Tillis says he won't vote for Trump's ‘big beautiful bill'

Yahoo

8 hours ago

U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican, broke with his party Saturday and said he would not support the federal 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act,' the sweeping budget package that would enact much of President Donald Trump's agenda.
In a statement, Tillis cited the bill's expected impacts on Medicaid and rural hospitals as key reasons for his decision.
'I did my homework on behalf of North Carolinians, and I cannot support this bill in its current form. It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities,' Tillis' statement read. 'This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population.'
The Huntersville resident, a former speaker of the state House first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014, is running for a third term. He has mostly — though not always — avoided publicly breaking with Trump this year.
His vote on Trump's top legislative priority is sure to be an issue in 2026, both in a Republican primary election and in a general election against a Democrat.
The Senate is set to consider the Trump-backed bill this weekend after releasing it Friday evening. Tillis told reporters he would vote against a procedural measure to advance the bill, as well as the bill itself, NBC News reported.
The House approved its own version of the bill last month. The Senate's version of the bill would need to be approved by the House before it heads to Trump's desk. Trump has said he wants the bill finalized by July 4.
The key goal of the bill is to cut taxes, as tax breaks approved during Trump's first term expire later this year, the Associated Press reported. The bill would also provide billions of dollars for the president's immigration and border agendas, including deportations.
In order to pay for many of the bill's proposals, the AP reported, the measure would enact cuts on several longstanding government programs — including Medicaid. The House's version of the bill included less severe cuts to Medicaid, but would still leave more than 10 million people without health care coverage, the AP reported. That includes more than 260,000 in North Carolina, according to one estimate.
In a June 12 letter to Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune — all Republicans — Senate Democrats cited data from the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC-Chapel Hill to show that five rural hospitals in North Carolina could be at risk of closing under the bill's proposed cuts to Medicaid.
'There is a lot for North Carolinians to love about the rest of the One Big Beautiful Bill, including extending the historic Trump Tax Cuts, increasing the child tax credit, providing historic funding for border security, and ending wasteful spending,' Tillis said Saturday. 'We can and must accomplish this without hurting our rural communities and hospitals, and without jeopardizing access to care for hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians who need it the most.'
Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, told The News & Observer this week that the bill would cost North Carolina billions in federal funding and potentially see hundreds of thousands in the state lose their insurance coverage.
'As it relates to health care access throughout this state ... it's going to be harder for people, particularly in the rural parts of North Carolina to find hospitals and clinics to actually get their health care,' Martin said.
Martin also identified Tillis as 'one of the most vulnerable Senate Republicans.'
Tillis' counterpart, Sen. Ted Budd, also a North Carolina Republican, said he would vote in favor of the procedural step to move the bill forward to floor debate.
'I support moving to debate on the One Big Beautiful Bill because it includes major reforms to slow the ballooning cost of government programs and root out waste, fraud, and abuse,' Budd said on X. 'There's more work to be done, but I strongly agree with President Trump that we must unleash America's full economic potential.'
At the state level, Senate leader Phil Berger, an Eden Republican, said on X Saturday he supports the bill and that 'the legislature will work through any implementation issues.'
Politics reporter Kyle Ingram contributed to this report.