Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) voted “aye” on Saturday night to advance the GOP megabill to advance President Trump’s agenda after voicing serious misgivings in recent weeks about deep cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the legislation.
Murkowski was one of the last senators to vote for the legislation and was quickly surrounded by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and members of his leadership team when she walked onto the floor, after many of her GOP colleagues had already voted.
Murkowski had declined to say for days how she would vote as she negotiated changes to the bill behind closed doors.
She was particularly worried about how changes to Medicaid’s and SNAP’s work and eligibility requirements would affect Alaska.
Murkowski questioned whether Alaska’s relatively antiquated systems for delivering benefits would be penalized for having higher error rates and lose out on substantial federal funding.
She won a victory Friday night when GOP leaders added language to the revised text of the bill that made Alaska eligible for waivers from new SNAP work requirements for able-bodied adults without dependent children.
GOP leaders increased a rural hospital relief fund from $15 billion to $25 billion and made other legislative changes to provide more money to Alaska’s hospitals and health care providers.
They also added a provision to let whaling captains write off up to $50,000 in expenses.
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