All eyes will be on GOP Sens. Josh Hawley, Susan Collins, Rick Scott, Ron Johnson and others who are pushing for changes to the House-passed bill
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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is hoping to celebrate a major legislative win later this summer by signing into law a massive bill with implications for every American, including extending his first term tax cuts and following through on a campaign pledge to eliminate taxes on tips and overtime.
But to do that, Trump will need to convince a handful of vocal members of his own party in the Senate who want major changes to the version that passed the House on May 22. All eyes will be on Republican Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Susan Collins of Maine, Rick Scott of Florida and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin – among others – who are pushing for changes to the bill’s approach to Medicaid, green energy subsidies, and overall spending.
The upper chamber will soon begin working on the legislation that would extend income tax cuts, implement changes to Medicaid and food stamps, funnel more money toward immigration enforcement and more. They’re not likely to take the House’s version as-is – and some senators are already drawing red lines that GOP leadership will have to navigate as they seek to meet the goal of passing it by July 4.
“The goal of the House effort has been to pass one big, beautiful bill. It’s rhetoric, it’s false advertising,” Johnson said on May 22, hours after the House bill passed. “The goal should have been reduce average annual deficits. We have to focus on spending.”
Trump over the weekend encouraged senators to make changes – which, he said, “may be something I’d agree with” – despite House Speaker Mike Johnson urging senators “not to meddle with it too much” to make it possible to pass it again through the House.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, too, will have to deal with a narrow margin in order to get the bill across the finish line: He can lose only three Republican votes and still get the majority necessary to pass it presuming no Democrats cross party lines to support the legislative package.
Senators have plenty they’re looking to change, from Medicaid to overall spending cuts. Here are the main sticking points so far.
Spending cuts
The House-passed legislation would add an estimated $3.8 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years, fueled by a permanent extension of the 2017 income tax cuts that Trump signed into law during his first term.
The bill also includes temporary tax breaks for tips, overtime, seniors and buyers of American-made cars. There is also a boosted child tax credit, among other benefits.
Some fiscal conservatives in the Senate say they can’t sign off on legislation that would add to the country’s national debt, which is already more than $36 trillion, and that there are enough of them to block the legislation.
“I think we have enough to stop the process until the president gets serious about the spending reduction and reducing the deficit,” Johnson said May 25 on CNN.
“We have witnessed an unprecedented level of increased spending,” the Wisconsin Republican added. “This is our only chance to reset that to a reasonable pre-pandemic level.”
Sens. Rick Scott, R-Florida, and Mike Lee, R-Utah, have similarly said they want to see deeper spending cuts in the final package. Scott is pushing for the GOP to “completely eliminate” the renewable energy provisions of former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, while Lee says there are federal benefits for undocumented immigrants that need to be eliminated.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, has also raised concerns that the package raises the debt ceiling by $4 trillion – a provision that is necessary to prevent the U.S. from defaulting on its debt sometime in August. “Conservatives do need to stand up and have their voice heard,” Paul said.
Medicaid changes
The House-passed legislation also would make major changes to Medicaid, saving $625 billion from the low-income healthcare program while pushing an estimated 7.6 million Americans off coverage.
Among the changes would be a new requirement for able-bodied adults without children to prove that they’re working, volunteering, or going to school for 80 hours per month, along with more frequent eligibility checks.
Multiple senators have raised concerns about the House’s cuts to the program. Maine’s Collins has said the bill’s language goes beyond “waste, fraud and abuse,” as GOP leadership has suggested.
Sen. Jim Justice, R-West Virginia, who has also been wary of the lower chamber’s changes to Medicaid, doesn’t like a portion of the bill that limits states from raising money to pay for their part of Medicaid spending through health-care-related taxes known as “provider taxes.”
Drawing the ire of Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, is a requirement in the House bill for people who earn between 100 percent and 138 percent of the federal poverty level to pay up to $35 per service, which is currently a salary of $35,365 to $44,367 annually for a family of four.
Sens. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, have also said they’re worried about the impact of Medicaid cuts on their constituents.
SALT taxes
House Republicans from primarily Democratic states like California, New York and New Jersey pushed for an increased cap on state and local tax deductions, also known as SALT, which allows people to write off a portion of their local taxes from what they owe the federal government.
The 2017 tax law capped that deduction at $10,000. The new bill would raise that cap to $40,000 for people who make less than $500,000 per year.
But in the Senate, there are no blue-state Republicans pushing for similar changes. Some may seek to strip it out to decrease the bill’s price tag.
“There’s not one Republican in the United States Senate” who cares about the SALT tax issue, Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-North Dakota, told reporters, adding that getting a majority in the House “does matter… and we want to be cognizant about that.”
Green energy
The House bill would cut off many renewable energy tax credits for projects beginning 60 days after the bill passes. It would also rescind several other climate change-related provisions of the IRA, including a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles.
It would pull back unspent money for several grant and loan programs at the Energy Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, delay methane fees for oil and gas companies, repeal additional rules encouraging the adoption of electric vehicles, and accelerate permitting for fossil fuel projects.
While senators like Scott of Florida want to further strip down the IRA’s green energy boosters, another group of senators thinks the changes go too far.
Murkowski, Moran, and Sens. John Curtis, R-Utah and Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, sent a letter to Thune in early April warning that rolling back the IRA’s renewable energy tax credits could create major disruption to American businesses.
Contributing: Savannah Kuchar