Senate Republicans are regrouping after Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough dashed their plan to achieve billions in savings through cuts to Medicaid.
The Senate referee determined that the Medicaid cuts in President Trump’s agenda bill did not adhere to the Byrd Rule, and therefore would be subject to a Democratic filibuster, which would require 60 votes to overcome.
Republicans don’t appear to even have a simple 51-vote majority for the bill at this point, so they’re on the hunt for a workaround.
The surprise decision on Medicaid means Republicans must find hundreds of billions in additional spending cuts in order to account for the lost government revenue from their efforts to make some tax cuts permanent.
“We have contingency plans, plan B, plan C,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who met with Trump at the White House on Thursday.
The Senate’s work is poised to spill into the weekend, with senators saying Friday afternoon they expect the first vote on Saturday.
Trump said Friday his July 4 deadline for passage is “not the end all,” suggesting he’s open to giving lawmakers more time to find consensus.
The Senate Parliamentarian has so far struck nearly two dozen pieces from the megabill, most recently ruling against religious college tax carve-outs, gun silencer deregulation and text that would prohibit federal subsidies for health plans that cover abortion services.
Thune said he won’t seek to override the parliamentarian, earning the ire of conservative hardliners.
“Thune needs to over rule her or FIRE HER!!!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted on X. “We need leaders with courage not weak men who refuse to use their power in order to do the right thing!!!”
Trump said Friday that MacDonough has “been a little difficult.”
“I’d say I disagree with the parliamentarian on some things, and in other ways she’s been fine, but we’ll have to see,” he said.
The Republicans got one win Friday, with the parliamentarian green-lighting their rewritten text that would require states to cover a share of food benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The Trump administration is engaged in a maximum pressure campaign on Congressional Republicans amid deep divisions over spending, taxes and Medicaid cuts.
The president held an event at the White House on Thursday with “ordinary Americans” he says the bill will help, including tipped workers, border patrol and law enforcement.
Even if the bill makes it through the Senate, opposition is mounting in the House over the upper chamber’s changes to the bill.
Five House Republicans say they’ll oppose the bill if it includes a provision to sell public lands for development.
However, House Republicans from high-tax blue states are honing in on an agreement with the Trump administration for the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap, which has been a major point of contention. Still, the deal will have to be approved by Senate Republicans to be finalized.
“There’s a tentative deal between the SALT and White House, but not the Senate [which is] still talking through that,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said.
Republicans are in a tough spot, with every new deal or concession by one faction of the caucus resulting in opposition from another.
“The perfect cannot be the enemy of the good,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday.
