The Senate slogged through a tense overnight session that has now dragged into Tuesday morning, with Republican leaders searching for ways to secure support for President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts while fending off proposed amendments, mostly from Democrats trying to defeat the package.
An endgame appeared to be taking shape. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota spent the night reaching for last-minute agreements between those in his party worried the bill’s reductions to Medicaid will leave millions without care and his most conservative flank, which wants even steeper cuts to hold down deficits ballooning with the tax cuts.
It’s a pivotal moment for the Republicans, who have control of Congress and are racing to wrap up work with just days to go before Trump’s self-imposed July 4 deadline. The 940-page “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” as it’s formally titled, has consumed Congress as its shared priority with the president.
Here’s the latest:
‘I truly don’t know what’s going to happen’
Asked Tuesday morning if Senate Republicans were close to passing Trump’s big bill, Sen. Susan Collins, a key Republican vote, said: “I truly don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“I just canceled my third flight,” Collins told The Associated Press. “I’m trying to rework my schedule.”
Asked if she’ll support the bill, Collins said she continues to have a “lot of serious reservations about the bill.”
Local officials prepare for Trump’s arrival in the Florida Everglades
They were standing by the entrance of the airport in a remote stretch of the Everglades in Ochopee, Florida, where Donald Trump is expected to tour a new migrant detention site.
Media vans and other vehicles were parked along the highway lined by cypress trees as they waited for the president’s arrival.
All eyes on Alaska’s Sen. Lisa Murkowski
It’s been 24 hours since the Senate began voting on Trump’s major bill, much of that time spent rejecting Democratic amendments as Republicans work privately to secure the necessary votes to pass it.
With a 53-47 majority, Republicans can afford to lose only three votes — Vice President JD Vance holds the power to break a tie.
All eyes are on Murkowski, a Republican who’s emerged as the pivotal swing vote in the chamber. On Tuesday morning, she spent over an hour in deep conversation with fellow Republicans on the Senate floor as speculation swirled about how she might vote.
How some Republicans are looking to amend Trump’s big bill
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine had proposed bolstering the $25 billion proposed rural hospital fund to $50 billion, offset with a higher tax rate on those earning more than $25 million a year, but her amendment failed.
And Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski tried to secure provisions to spare people in her state from some food stamp cuts, which appeared to be accepted, while also working to beef up federal reimbursements to hospitals in Alaska and others states, that failed to comply with parliamentary rules.
Conservative Senate Republicans insisting on a vote on their plan for health care cuts, including Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, filed into Senate Leader John Thune’s office for a near-midnight meeting.
Trump says New Yorkers would be ‘crazy’ to elect Zohran Mamdani as mayor
Trump called the Democrat a “communist” and said, “the last thing we need is a communist.”
Mamdani claimed victory over former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on election night last week in the Democratic mayoral primary. Final results will be announced Tuesday.
The 33-year-old democratic socialist and New York state assemblyman would be the city’s first Muslim mayor and its first of Indian American descent if elected.
The Republican president, who grew up in New York, also mentioned Mamdani’s campaign promise to open government-run grocery stores.
Trump said that if New Yorkers elect Mamdani as the next mayor, “I think they’re crazy.”
Trump has advice on running away from alligators
The president is visiting a new immigration detention facility in the Florida Everglades that’s been nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz.” While leaving the White House, a reporter asked Trump if the idea was for any escaping migrants to get attacked by wildlife.
“I guess that’s the concept,” he said. “This is not a nice business.”
Then Trump joked that “we’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator if they escape prison.”
“Don’t run in a straight line. Run like this,” and he moved his hand in a zigzag motion. “And you know what? Your chances go up about 1%.”
Trump responds to Elon Musk’s criticism of tax cut and spending bill
Trump said the billionaire could lose a lot more than the electrical vehicle subsidies that would be eliminated if the measure becomes law.
“We might have to put DOGE on Elon,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to Florida. “DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon.”
DOGE is the Department of Government Efficiency. Trump put Musk in charge of DOGE to cut government spending. Musk owns an electric vehicle company and a space company and has lucrative federal government contracts.
Senate strikes AI provision from GOP bill after uproar from the states
The proposal to deter states from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade was soundly defeated in the Senate on Tuesday, thwarting attempts to insert the measure into President Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts.
The Senate voted 99-1 to strike the AI provision from the legislation after weeks of criticism from both Republican and Democratic governors and state officials.
Originally proposed as a 10-year ban on states doing anything to regulate AI, lawmakers later tied it to federal funding so that only states that backed off on AI regulations would be able to get subsidies for broadband internet or AI infrastructure.
▶ Read more about the proposal on AI regulation
Senate ‘vote-o-rama’ for Trump’s big bill already among longest-running in modern times
The all-night session has been grinding on for nearly 24 hours, having started at roughly 9:30 a.m. on Monday.
Senators have voted on more than three dozen amendments so far. More voting is likely.
The marathon voting session is part of the cumbersome process Republicans are using to try and pass the bill with a simple majority.
Republicans are letting the process drag on as they try to lock up last-minute agreements to push the bill to passage. For now, the Senate floor is at a standstill.
