Trump Megabill Drama: GOP Divided Ahead of Senate Vote

Senate Republicans are moving toward an initial vote Saturday afternoon on their latest version of President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending bill. But the changes made to the bill overnight may not be enough to satisfy enough senators, let alone conservatives in the House.

Senate leaders got a jolt of momentum midday Saturday when Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) said they will vote to open debate. Hawley said he’ll vote for final passage, while Collins told reporters she’s “leaning against” backing the bill without major changes.

But the measure, which contains most of Trump’s domestic agenda, is far from on a glidepath.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) appeared unmoved on Saturday, doubling down on his pledge to vote against moving forward with the bill and “no” on final passage. Tillis is one of the most vulnerable Senate Republicans heading into 2026 and is against the hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid cuts his party is proposing. The president has personally reached out to Tillis to try to work him on the bill, a person granted anonymity to disclose private conversations told POLITICO.

If at least two other Republicans join Tillis to oppose the procedural vote Saturday afternoon, Senate leadership would have to rely on Vice President JD Vance to break a tie to move forward to debate the bill. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) all have concerns that could drive them to vote against moving forward.

Johnson and Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who have raised issues with the bill because of its impact on the national debt, met with the president on Saturday shortly before the vote, according to Lee.

Republicans huddled behind closed doors for lunch on Saturday ahead of a tentatively scheduled 4 p.m. procedural vote.

“We won’t bring it to the floor if we don’t have the votes,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said. “I think it’d be better to have the vice president close. I don’t know if we’re going to need him.”

If the procedural vote clears a simple majority threshold, the Senate will move on to debating the bill before launching a “vote-a-rama,” consideration of unlimited amendments that can be brought to the floor. Only after that concludes is a final vote on passage possible.

The President threw his support behind the revamped Senate measure on Saturday, along with a reminder that he wants the bill on his desk by July 4.

“President Trump is committed to keeping his promises, and failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal,” the White House said in a statement of administration policy.

Even with scores of changes to the bill overnight, Collins is still not satisfied. For months she has warned against the cuts to Medicaid. She told reporters Saturday afternoon that she plans to vote in favor of moving forward to debate the bill, but that is no guarantee of her support on final passage.

“That’s going to depend on whether the bill is substantially changed,” she said. She plans to offer multiple amendments during the vote-a-rama, including on Medicaid and on top income tax rates, but said without changes she is “leaning against” voting to pass the bill.

Hawley, who opposes the Medicaid cuts, said he will not be offering any amendments of his own, but will be working to dismantle the planned cuts if the bill is passed into law.

“I want to be clear, I’m going to spend the next however long, trying to make sure that the cuts that we’ve successfully delayed never take place,” Hawley told reporters when he announced he’d vote for the bill.

“I think, frankly, my party needs to do some soul searching. If you want to be a working-class party, you’ve got to deliver for working-class people. You cannot take away health care from working people.”

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said he was still reviewing the new SNAP language and believes there could still be additional changes. POLITICO previously reported that leadership was looking at adding grants related to SNAP, or food assistance for low-income people, and aimed at Alaskans. But he praised other Alaska-specific provisions, like an increased deduction for whale hunters, a “home run.”

GOP leaders appeared to settle one major holdup on the House side, with Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) saying he supported the latest version of the state and local tax deduction in the Senate megabill — and that the group of blue-state Republicans pushing for an expanded deduction was largely on board with it, too.

But Medicaid changes were still a major hangup in the House. More than a dozen House Republican lawmakers including Reps. David Valadao were threatening to vote against the megabill if its Medicaid provisions didn’t hew more closely to the House-passed version. Many of those lawmakers have brought those concerns straight to party leadership, who are holding a call with members this afternoon.

The speaker asked members to raise their concerns privately and not on social media, according to a person who received a readout from the call. House GOP leadership didn’t take questions, the person said.