DEVELOPING: Senate Majority Leader John Thune Believes He Has Votes To Pass ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he believes he has the necessary support to pass the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ as the upper chamber prepares to vote on the legislation.

“I believe we do,” Thune said, according to Bloomberg.

Fox News said Thune told reporters he believed Republicans “have a deal.”

Check it out:

Bloomberg noted:

The Senate worked through the night on Trump’s $3.3 trillion tax and spending package, with Republican leaders still negotiating Tuesday morning with key GOP holdouts.

Thune did not specify what changes were made to the bill to convince holdouts to support the measure.

“I hear we’re doing well,” Trump told reporters upon arriving in Florida Tuesday. “I think it’s going to be the greatest bill ever passed.”

Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski, a moderate concerned about Medicaid and green energy cuts, appeared to be the central focus of Senate leaders’ attention early Tuesday.

Throughout the negotiations in recent days, there have been eight major Republican holdouts. Thune can afford to lose only three senators and still pass the measure. Two — Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — have said they are solidly against it, leaving very little room for error as the South Dakota Republican tries to get to 50 votes on the package.

According to reports, the Senate is currently voting on final passage of the legislation after a “vote-a-rama” on proposed amendments that lasted over 24 hours.

“Throughout the Vote-a-rama, I was working all night to stop Congress from adding to our debt. I met with @VP and I reiterated my offer to vote for the bill—if it included a 90% reduction in the debt ceiling. No earmarks. No handouts. Just real fiscal reform,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said.

“I wasn’t looking for favors. I wasn’t horse-trading. I was fighting for the American people and against our out-of-control debt. Bottom line: I offered my vote for fiscal sanity. Congress chose to sell out taxpayers instead. Only once the bill is released, we will know what the true price was,” he added.

CNBC noted:

On the Senate floor, members voted late Tuesday morning on what appeared to be a final series of amendments. In between votes, they thanked Senate staffers and aides, many of whom had been up all night while the amendment process played out.

Republican leadership has worked for days to secure enough votes in the upper chamber to push it across the finish line in the Senate.

After that, it would go back to the House for a final vote on the Senate revisions.

For more than 24 hours, senators have voted on dozens of amendments to the bill in a marathon, record-breaking vote-a-rama session.

Behind the scenes, GOP leadership has been negotiating with hold-outs in their conference who, for days, have threatened to sink Trump’s bill.

Vice President JD Vance arrived at the U.S. Capitol early Tuesday, underscoring that Republican leadership was preparing for the vice president needing to cast the tie-breaking vote.

This story is developing. 



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