Pennsylvania first-term Sen. John Fetterman (D) made it crystal clear Monday morning that he was not feeling enthusiastic about trudging through a marathon series of votes on President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” grumbling that the exercise was costing him time on the beach when the bill is likely to pass anyway.
“Oh my God, I just want to go home. I’ve already … I’ve missed our entire trip to the beach,” he told reporters.
He said his family would already be back from the beach by the time he got out of the Capitol in hot, muggy Washington, D.C.
“There’s no drama,” he said. “The only interesting votes are going to be on the margin,” citing a couple of Republican colleagues who are holdouts.
“I don’t think it’s really helpful to put people here until some ungodly hour,” he said.
Fetterman reiterated that he plans to vote against the bill.
Senators started voting shortly after 9:30 a.m. EDT Monday on a marathon series of procedural motions and amendments that is expected to last until late at night or even early Tuesday morning.
Senators on both sides of the aisle are eager to get out of town after the start of the weeklong July Fourth holiday recess was postponed by several days to finish up work on the legislation.
Senators had to stay up late to read the revised 940-page Senate bill, which was released late Friday, a few minutes before midnight.
Then they had to come to the Capitol on Saturday and wait around until after 11 p.m. to finish a vote on a motion to proceed to the bill.
Senate floor staff spent the rest of Saturday night and most of Sunday reading through the bill — an arduous process that stretched out for more than 16 hours.
Senators finally started voting on amendments Monday morning, with no end-time in sight.
Lawmakers have remained trapped on the floor for hours, voting every half hour or so on an amendment or motion. Every attempt to amend the bill or send it back to committee had failed as of 3 p.m. Monday.
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