Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) says he’ll vote to advance President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” but will lead an amendment stripping the sale of public lands from the measure.
Sheehy initially said he would vote against the motion to proceed because the bill includes language to sell millions of acres of public lands, becoming the fourth senator to vow a “no” vote and putting the bill in serious danger of stalling on the Senate floor.
“I oppose the sale of public lands and will vote no on the motion to proceed if it is included,” Sheehy posted on X on Saturday afternoon.
Moments later, however, Sheehy reversed himself.
“I have just concluded productive discussions with leadership. I will be leading an amendment to strip the sale of public lands from this bill. I will vote yes on the motion to proceed,” he posted on X. “We must quickly pass the Big Beautiful Bill to advance President Trump’s agenda.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has told colleagues to expect a 4 p.m. vote to advance the measure.
The legislation includes language sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) directing the secretary of the Interior to sell between 0.25 percent and 0.5 percent of public lands to build more housing throughout the American West.
The provision directing the Bureau of Public Lands to sell millions of acres appears to exempt Montana, which was not among the 11 states named in the bill.
Sheehy expressed confidence Saturday that the amendment would have adequate support for adoption.
“Looks like we have the votes to support that,” he told The Hill. “So now, with that support for leadership, we’re going to move forward.”
“I think the overall passage was endangered if we didn’t have the amendment, and that’s why we’re offering it, because not only was it probably not going to pass here, it was definitely not going to pass in the House,” he said.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) also said Saturday that he worked on the amendment with Sheehy and Senate budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). He added that the vote threshold in order to pass it would also be set “at 51 votes.”
“It’ll help ensure passage, certainly in the house,” Daines told reporters. “I know we have some House members that, like Congressman [Ryan] Zinke from Montana, who has firmly said he’s opposed the bill unless this this provision is struck, and so this helps us ensure we get the bill passed in the House as well.”
Three other Republican senators have said they will either vote to proceed to the bill or final passage of the bill for various reasons: Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.).
Thune can only afford three defections and still advance the bill. Republicans control 53 Senate seats.
Tillis told reporters after a closed-door meeting with colleagues Saturday that he will vote against the bill because of steep cuts to federal Medicaid spending and urged GOP leaders to return to the Medicaid changes passed by the House last month.
“I’m going to vote no on motion to proceed and on final passage,” he said.
“I did my homework on behalf of North Carolinians, and I cannot support this bill in its current form,” Tillis said in a statement released by his office.
He said the bill “would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities.”
“This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population,” he warned.
Johnson said he’s voting “no” on the motion to proceed because he just got his copy of the legislation at 1:23 am and hasn’t had a chance to read it carefully.
He wants Senate Republican leaders to add substantially bigger spending cuts to the bill and has proposed targeting mandatory spending programs outside of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
“I’m not going to vote for motion to proceed today. We just got the bill. I got my first copy about 1:23 in the morning, this morning,” he said on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”
Paul is a hard “no” vote because the legislation includes a provision to raise the debt limit by $5 trillion.
Thune said his leadership team would know when the vote is held where exactly his colleagues stand on the bill.
“We’ll get to the vote here before long and we’ll answer all those questions,” he said when asked about the threatened “no” votes from Sheehy, Tillis, Johnson and Paul.
Updated at 4:42 p.m.
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