Republicans in the Senate passed their version of Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' on Tuesday, clearing one of the last big hurdles to it becoming law.
The chamber voted early Tuesday afternoon on the package after a marathon "vote-a-rama" section where both parties offered amendments to the bill. In the final hours, the chamber's parliamentarian ruled on hand-written addendums meant to bring the last GOP holdouts into line.
And fall into line they did.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska remained Tuesday morning as the last public "no" vote targeted by Republican leadership for lobbying. In the end, Murkowski secured key concessions for her state on the issue of food stamps and (along with others) won a $50bn fund to keep rural hospitals afloat.
In a head-scratching moment after the vote, Murkowski unloaded on the bill and the residual concerns she had about the legislation's cuts to Medicaid. She urged the House of Representatives, which will take up the bill again, to make changes.
"Reconciliation is never a very dignified process, but we were operating under a timeline that was, basically an artificial timeline," said the senator. "And I think rather than taking the the deliberative approach to good legislating, we rushed to get a product out."
"My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we're not there yet," she added.
Meanwhile, nearly two dozen House Republicans were threatening to vote against the Senate's iteration of the package by late Tuesday. Most were enraged about the bill's higher price tag, which already was projected to add trillions to the national debt over the next decade.
But here's the real question for Capitol Hill: how many Republicans will actually hold out for anything more than minimal concessions, given the president's desire to see the bill signed by July 4?
Or, to rephrase the question: how many will really risk the wrath of Donald Trump?
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