Vance breaks 50-50 tie as Senate passes GOP megabill

The Hill ^ | July 1 | 07/01/25 12:04 PM ET

[RandFan]

GOP Sens. Thom Tillis (N.C.), Rand Paul (Ky.) and Susan Collins (Maine) voted against the measure, along with every Democrat.

The legislation appeared to be on the cusp of failing on the floor after Senate GOP leaders spent hours trying to hash out a compromise with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an independent-minded Republican who worried the legislation’s deep cuts to Medicaid and federal food assistance funding would hurt her home state.

At one point, Murkowski could be heard talking about the “vulnerable” on her phone as she walked briskly through the Capitol, avoiding reporters.

With Collins indicating she opposed the measure and Tillis and Paul saying they were hard “no’s,” Republican leaders knew they needed Murkowski’s vote for the bill to pass.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and his leadership team, including Senate Finance Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), thought they had secured Murkowski’s vote by crafting language to shield Alaska from the full brunt of Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cuts.

But that initial plan was derailed by Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, who ruled the way the Republican SNAP waivers and enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) were crafted to help Alaska violated the Byrd Rule, which determines what legislation may be included in a budget reconciliation package and pass with only GOP votes.

GOP negotiators spent Monday night reworking the Alaska-targeted Medicaid and SNAP provisions in a way that could win approval from both the parliamentarian and Murkowski — an arduous process that took hours while the Senate plowed through a marathon series of votes that started at 9:30 Monday morning.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), who was involved in the negotiations around the Medicaid provisions, said Republicans presented four different proposals to the parliamentarian and she rejected them all.

So GOP leaders decided instead to double the size of the rural hospital relief fund from $25 billion to $50 billion to make up for a potential shortfall of Medicaid funding in Alaska and other rural states.

They did so even though the Senate rejected an amendment sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) earlier in the evening to double the rural hospital fund to $50 billion and pay for it by creating a new 39.6 percent tax bracket for ultrawealthy income earners.

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TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Conspiracy
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[RandFan]

OLD NEWS I grant you but some background on how they got Lisa M's vote and the disgusting horse trading goings on. Cost to taxpayer: $25 billion!

[MotorCityBuck]

Go tell your Momz.
She is probably the one person that doesn’t know.
🤡