Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), two key holdouts, said Saturday that they will vote to advance the Senate’s version of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” citing changes made to the text unveiled by GOP leaders on Friday.
Collins said she will vote for the motion to proceed to the legislation out of deference to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), but warned that she still has significant concerns with the legislation and will propose several amendments to change it.
“I am planning to vote for the motion to proceed. Generally, I give deference to the majority leader’s power to bring bills to the Senate floor. Does not in any way predict how I’m going to vote on final passage,” she said.
“That’s going to depend on whether the bill is substantially changed,” she said. “There are some very good changes that have been made in the latest version but I want to see further changes and I will be filing a number of amendments.”
Collins vote on the procedural motion is crucial. Two conservatives, Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) say they won’t vote for the legislation as it now stands.
And Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Saturday he would vote “no” on both the motion to proceed and final passage.
Senate Republicans control 53 seats and can afford only three defections in their caucus and still pass the bill.
But Thune scored another big victory when Hawley, who had sounded the alarm over hundreds of billions of dollars in federal Medicaid cuts, told reporters that he will vote for the motion to proceed to the bill and will also support final passage of the 940-page Senate version of the legislation, which leaders unveiled Friday night.
Hawley said that changes to the legislation will result in significantly more federal Medicaid funding for Missouri over the next four years.
He also cited $1 billion in funding for Missourians suffering from radiation exposure related to the nuclear weapons development in the 1940s during Manhattan Project as reasons for his yes vote.
“With the delay in the provider tax framework that we were able to get and with the changes to the rural hospital fund, Missouri’s Medicaid dollars will actually increase over the next four years,” he said.
“We will get more money, Medicaid funding, over baseline until 2030. Any changes to our provider framework in Missouri will not take place until the next decade,” he said.
He noted that GOP leaders agreed to increase a rural hospital relief fund from $15 billion to $25 billion and changed the funding formula to provide more federal funds to his home state.
He also said that the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act funding he requested is “fully here and fully intact.”
“That will mean major new dollars flowing to the state of Missouri, expansion of health care for the people of Missouri. On that basis, I’m going to vote yes on this bill,” he said.
If the motion to proceed clears a simple majority threshold, the chamber would debate the bill before moving to a “vote-a-rama,” during which unlimited amendments can be brought to the floor, before a final vote.
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