The Senate passed President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” on Tuesday morning, but only after senators spent hours negotiating changes to the near-1,000 page sweeping budget legislation.
Senate GOP holdouts, such as Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, were pushing for amendments to Medicaid provisions and clean energy tax credits, and using their leverage to strike deals with Senate Majority Leader Thune throughout the night. Here are some of the last minute changes that were made to the budget reconciliation package.
Medicaid
Collins — who ultimately was one of three Republican senators to vote against the bill — has been a staunch advocate of procuring extra funding for rural hospitals affected by the Medicaid provider tax legislation and initially pushed for a $100 billion rural hospital fund. Senate Republicans instead placed a $25 billion safeguard fund into the bill.
Collins introduced an amendment to raise the fund to $50 billion by raising taxes on billionaires, but the vote failed 22-78 with 18 Republicans and four members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voting in favor. Despite her failed amendment, Collins’ increased rural hospital fund was added into the bill without the need for taxes