Senate Republicans have once again rallied behind President Donald Trump’s big plan to claw back billions in government spending. They pushed the bill past its last major roadblock, with help from Vice President JD Vance breaking any ties.
Now, lawmakers are set for a marathon 10-hour debate on the bill. During this time, Senate Democrats are likely to drag things out and criticize the cuts, especially those hitting foreign aid and money for public TV and radio.
Senate Republicans had agreed earlier to remove cuts to programs fighting HIV and AIDS worldwide from Trump’s spending rollback bill.
Trump’s scaled-down $9 billion package got support from almost every Senate Republican, while all Democrats voted no. The only Republicans against it were Senators Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Susan Collins from Maine, and Mitch McConnell from Kentucky.
After the debate wraps up, senators will dive into another “vote-a-rama.” That’s when anyone can propose as many changes, or amendments, as they want. Democrats might try to block or weaken the bill, while Republicans plan to add a fix that saves about $400 million for global HIV and AIDS programs.
This special exception for the Bush-era President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was worked out before the vote and has the White House’s backing. Cutting funds from this program upset some Senate Republicans, who said openly and behind closed doors that they might not back the bill without a solution.
But getting rid of that cut could be tough to sell in the House of Representatives. Speaker Mike Johnson from Louisiana has urged Senate Republicans not to tweak the bill at all.
Some Republicans in the House are worried that disagreements in their own party might water down Trump’s push for spending cuts.
Johnson is backed by strict budget cutters in the House Freedom Caucus. They’ve insisted that Senate Republicans stick to the original plan and warned that any changes could cause big problems, though they haven’t threatened to completely block it.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune from South Dakota is optimistic that his House colleagues will go along with the bill before a tight Friday deadline.
“There was a lot of interest among our members in doing something on the PEPFAR issue,” he said ahead of the vote. “So, that’s reflected in the substitute, and we hope that if we can get this across the finish line in the Senate that the House will accept that one small modification.”
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