After Republicans made some changes to the Trump administration’s roughly $9 billion rescission bill, Senate GOP leaders think they have the votes to advance the controversial legislation codifying some cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency.
Whether they have enough time is the new question.
Republicans are racing against the clock to get their rescission package done in the Senate, knowing they have until Friday at midnight to get the amended legislation passed in the House as well.
The timeline is already tight, even without any Democratic delays. But whether the minority party could somehow stall the bill and run out the 45-day window the administration has for these proposed cuts is a real question.
With that in mind, Republicans rushed to get on the bill as soon as possible on Tuesday, with Vice President JD Vance having to break a tie to discharge the bill from the Appropriations Committee and then to proceed to the bill Tuesday night.
Now that the Senate is on the legislation, Republicans and Democrats have up to 10 hours, equally divided between the parties, to debate the bill. And even if Republicans yield back almost all of their time, they’re racing toward a process in which Democrats have some ability to control the fate of the bill: a vote-a-rama.
The rescission bill isn’t subject to the Senate’s usual 60-vote threshold. But because it only requires a simple majority, senators can get a vote on any germane amendment to the legislation. If Democrats try to run out the clock, they could propose hundreds of amendments to the rescission bill, tie up the Senate floor and greatly complicate the timeline.
And even if Senate Republicans pass the legislation before the Friday deadline, the House would still need to approve the amended bill in order to get the legislation to President Donald Trump’s desk.
That step is only necessary because enough GOP senators were uncomfortable with the bill that Republican leadership had to change it.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he plans to have a manager’s amendment that would remove $400 million in foreign aid cuts from the package, assuaging moderates who have criticized those reductions.
At the center of the debate was how much the bill cuts from the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, more commonly known as PEPFAR.
“There was a lot of interest among our members in doing something on the PEPFAR issue,” Thune said Tuesday. “So that’s reflected in the substitute, and we hope that if we can get this across the finish line in the Senate that the House will accept that one, small modification.”
After huddling behind closed doors Tuesday with Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, several rank-and-file Senate Republicans said they felt more comfortable with the package.
But all eyes are on Sen. Susan Collins, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, who engaged in what one person in the room for Tuesday’s lunch told NOTUS was an animated back-and-forth with Vought.
While speaking to reporters, Collins compared the text of this rescission bill with a 1992 rescission request that laid out exactly what each cut would do. She noted that the current package was not nearly as detailed.
Collins said removing the PEPFAR cuts was “progress” but that senators “still do not have detailed account information from OMB.”
“I’m still considering the options,” she told reporters Tuesday afternoon.
Sen. Thom Tillis, who said he’s supporting the package, also noted that his colleagues need details on what exactly the cuts will do.
“I’ve let the whip team know I’m a ‘yes,’” Tillis told reporters. “There are members asking legitimate questions that I think they deserve an answer to. If you look at the 1992 rescissions package, it was down to the very last detail, and this isn’t. So I think it’s causing members concern.”
“I’m willing to take on faith that they’re going to do it right,” Tillis added, “but if they mess up, they may destroy any chance of another rescission, and that’ll be on them.”
Republican concerns, however, are dissipating. At least one Republican senator, Mike Rounds, flipped his vote on Tuesday after he was assured that money could be repurposed to cover cuts to rural broadcasting in the bill.
Another Republican who was previously on the fence about the legislation, Sen. Todd Young, said Tuesday evening that he would support the measure.
“I appreciate the Administration and Senate leadership working to ensure the cuts are appropriately targeted, including protecting live-saving assistance,” Young posted on X.
Earlier Tuesday, a White House official told NOTUS that Trump would step in and talk to members “dependent on where the votes are at that particular moment and what’s needed.”
In the meantime, White House staff are engaging with senators and trying to get the Senate moving.
While Democrats are expected to try to delay the billI, a person familiar with the process told NOTUS there are not enough tools to delay it past the deadline if Republicans have the votes. Part of the issue is that there are only so many amendments Democrats can offer.
And as long as senators can give the House at least a few hours to pass the bill, Republicans think there’s enough time.
Senate Republicans expect the House to swallow whatever changes the upper chamber makes to the bill — just as the House did with the massive reconciliation bill earlier this month.
But the entire fate of the bill depends on senators quickly getting to amendment debate, on Democrats not proposing too many amendments and on dilatory tactics in the House not working.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries just broke a floor speech record fewer than two weeks ago during the debate on reconciliation. If Republicans don’t leave enough time on Friday, Jeffries could singlehandedly sink the legislation using the party leader’s so-called “magic minute,” wherein the leader gets to speak for however long they want.