Washington (AP) – The Republicans of the house were cheering after they were enforced by a single voice by President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and immigration package by muscles. But the senators were more careful about the Capitol.
The majority leader of the Senate, John Thune, can afford to lose three Republican senators and still say goodbye to the legislative template, and there is more than that at the moment that have problems with it. Like the house, he has to compensate for the concerns of moderate and conservative members of his conference.
The Republicans on July 4. Thune said groups of senators had already met to discuss legislation and that they would like to take some time to check them. “And then we will put our stamp on it,” he said.
“We’ll see how it works,” said Thune. “What does it take to get 51?”
A look at some of the potential embroidery points in the Senate:
expenditure
Several Republican senators said that the tax acid package of the house of the house did not have enough savings. Thune said many in his GOP conference favor the tax benefits in the legislation, but “when it comes to the expenditure side of the equation, this is a unique time in the history in which we have the house and the Senate and the White House, and an opportunity to do something meaningful how the government’s expenses can be checked.”
Senator Ron Johnson, R-Wis., A acute critic of the House Bill, wants the United States to return to the expenditure of the pre-Pandemic expenses. He announced that he would be a no on the bill as it looks now and he says he has at least three other senators who are aimed at him.
Medicaid and food brand cuts
The Senate Republicans are usually stricter work requirements for older Medicaid recipients who make up a gigantic part of the savings of 700 billion US dollars. But the Republican sensor Josh Hawley from Missouri, Jerry Moran from Kansas and Susan Collins from Maine have expressed concerns about other changes to the legal template that could possibly reduce financing for rural hospitals or boost copays and other health costs for recipients.
The senators could have a robust ally in Trump, who often said that he does not want Medicaid, even if he has approved the representation of the house bill. Hawley said he spoke to Trump by phone this week and “his exact words were:” Don’t touch it, Josh. “
Others were careful with the efforts of the House Bill to shift some costs of the food brand program in states, possibly an significant problem for some red states that have a gigantic number of food aids. The house law saves 290 billion US dollars before food aid, and John Boozman, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said that the Senate savings will “probably be a bit lower”.
Permanent tax cuts
This week, Thune said that “one of the most important differences” between the house and the Senate is that republican senators want to make many of the tax cuts permanently, while the house law has shorter time frames for many of its cuts-in one tax on tips, overtime, auto-loan interest rates and others.
Mike Crapo, Chairman of the Senate Financial Committee, said on Thursday that the attempt to make some of the cuts permanently was “a goal at the moment”.
How to pay everything
One of the biggest questions for the Senate: whether the tax breaks really have to be compensated for by cuts elsewhere.
In order to compensate for the costs of lost tax revenue, Republicans have proposed more than 1 trillion US dollar for reducing medicaid, food brands and roller backs for the Green Energy Program. However, the Republicans in the Senate do not believe that there are costs associated with the constant expansion of existing taxes and that there are a political and procedural showdown.
Debt limit
The house bill contains an boost in the debt limit by $ 4 trillion. Finance Minister Scott Bessent warned that the United States are on the right track of going out of money to pay for their bills without congress measures in August.
Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky. He said he was ready to think about it when it is taken out.
But most Republican senators want it to avoid a separate struggle that would require 60 votes in the Senate. The Senator of Texas, John Cornyn, said that if you deal with the debt limit outside of the legislation, you would have to “pay a ransom of a king” to receive enough votes.
Energy tax non -fonts
Several Republican senators said that they were concerned about home provisions, the Clean -Energy tax credits that were passed in 2022, triggered investments in many countries.
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, Thom Tillis from North Carolina, John Curtis from Utah and Moran wrote a letter last month in which he argued that the removal of the loans “uncertainty, endangerment of capital allocation, long -term project planning and the creation of jobs in the energy sector and throughout the world could create.
Artificial intelligence
The house law would prohibit states and places to regulate artificial secret services for a decade, which gives the federal government more control over politics. It is an approach that was preferred by the AI ​​industry, but which has obtained from members on both sides of the gang.
And even if there is enough support, the provision cannot pass from the Senate parliamentarian, as it is unlikely that you will affect the federal budget.
Other problems
With a close lead for victory and only 53 Republicans in the Senate, the top priority of each senator is of oversized importance. The Senator of South Dakota, Mike Rounds, said he supported the house law, but the way it is spectrum auctions – the sales law of telecommunications signals – is a “dealbreaker” for him. He said he was in discussions with other senators on this topic.
Senator John Hoeven, Rn.d.
“In the end we have to have 50 plus one who supports it,” said Hoeven. “So we have something to do.”
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Associated Press Writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this story.
