John Thune is wasting no time moving President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” through the Senate.
Senate committees will fully release revised text of the bill by the end of next week, Thune said.
Next week, panels writing the trickiest and most substantial parts — including the Senate Finance Committee — will release text.
Thune is also trying to coordinate with Speaker Mike Johnson, who has urged the Senate to make as few changes as possible to the House bill.
Thune said it will be up to each Senate committee to decide whether to hold votes on their piece of the bill.
President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is being swiftly passed by John Thune in the Senate.
In a POLITICO exclusive, the Senate majority leader outlined a rat-a-tat pace for the upcoming weeks, which he hopes will result in the party-line megabill being finally passed by Republicans by the July 4 deadline.
By the end of next week, Senate committees will fully release the bill’s amended text, according to Thune. Panel markups, in which the text may be discussed and possibly changed, will be completely optional. Additionally, he and Trump are already closely collaborating on identifying important senators who must be convinced to support the expansive legislation.
“He’s been really involved,” the Republican from South Dakota stated. “We tried to give him some direction, but I believe he would do that whether we asked [or not].”. “”.
Thune provided the comprehensive schedule following POLITICO’s initial report on Monday that the Armed Services Committee would be the first Senate panel to release its changes this week.
Text will be released next week by panels, including the Senate Finance Committee, that are writing the most complex and significant sections. The White House is where Trump will meet with other Republican members of the tax-writing panel on Wednesday to “lay out kind of what he wants to see,” according to Thune.
With little room for error, Thune is tasked with guiding his party’s top legislative priority to completion five months into his long-awaited dream job. Republicans must figure out how to unite almost all of their members while overcoming internal disagreements on difficult topics like the scope of spending cuts, the future of social safety net programs, and the design of significant tax laws.
“It’s finding the ideal balance,” Thune remarked. There are many trade-offs to be made, without getting into the specifics. “.”.
He said he thinks he has “a handle on what the dials are and how they can be turned and what the various options are to try to get to 51,” but he also likened trying to lock down the bill to playing a game of Whac-A-Mole. “”.
Thune is assured of at least one “no” vote in the Senate. Kentucky Republican Rand Paul has vowed to oppose the bill if it includes an increase in the debt ceiling. Thune mentioned that he and Sen have had a lot of conversations. The leadership considers Ron Johnson, a deficit hawk, to be their second-most likely opponent. Thune acknowledged that it would be difficult to meet the Wisconsin Republican’s public demands for trillions of dollars in additional spending cuts.
Thune declared, “I never give up,” and leaders are “doing everything we can to move the bill in a direction that he would be more inclined to be for.”. He has, however, made some rather forceful remarks publicly. “”.
He continued, “Everyone will ultimately have to decide whether or not this is better than the status quo and whether I really want to take this down.”.
Thune has referred to Trump as “the closer” and Trump has already begun contacting some of the senators who will be the hardest for Thune to lock down. Attention is needed for more than just conservative hardliners: Sen. On Tuesday, Susan Collins (R-Maine) informed reporters that she has discussed her worries regarding the possible effects on rural hospitals with administration representatives. Trump also gave Sen. Hawley Josh (R-Mo. ), who expressed concern over the House’s Medicaid reforms. Thune’s position has been discussed at a meeting with Hawley.
Additionally, Thune is attempting to work with Speaker Mike Johnson, who has pushed for the Senate to amend the House bill as little as possible. However, Thune stated that was an unreasonable expectation, especially with regard to the state and local tax deduction, which is a particularly difficult topic in the House.
Thune stated that it would be extremely difficult to persuade the Senate to support the House’s decision on SALT. There are just some individuals who have strong opinions about this. “.”.
Changes may also be made to SNAP, the nutrition program that was formerly known as food stamps. Thune acknowledged that the House’s proposal to mandate that states bear a portion of the program’s costs had “some of our members concerned.”.
Thune met with John Boozman (R-Ark), who chairs the Agriculture Committee. Tuesday, and the panel has been presented with a list of possible cost-cutting measures by the leadership that do not involve shifting expenses to the states.
The upcoming weeks will see a lot of behind-the-scenes work to refine the bill. According to Thune, each Senate committee will be in charge of determining whether to hold votes on its portion of the bill. Although he stated that he thinks some will, no panel has made the announcement as of yet.
Senate Republicans will “fine tune” the bill during the third week of the month to ensure it can receive 51 votes, possibly including a tie-breaker from Vice President JD Vance, Thune said, following the release of the bill’s text by the Finance panel, which has jurisdiction over both the tax and Medicare provisions, sometime next week.
“I think we really start focusing on, you know, getting ready to get it to the floor the last week in the last two weeks of [June],” he stated.
