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Sen. Markwayne Mullin is insisting President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic megabill doesn’t break his promise not to cut Medicaid, even as the Congressional Budget Office estimates 7.8 million people would lose access if it passes.

Instead, Mullin (R-Okla.) told NBC’s Kristen Welker on Sunday, the “Big Beautiful Bill” is eliminating fraud, waste and abuse that Republicans say is rampant in the program.

“What is so hard about having a work requirement there with someone that has no medical conditions and no dependents?” he said on “Meet the Press.” “We don’t pay people in this country to be lazy. We want to give them an opportunity. And when they’re going through a hard time, we want to give them a helping hand. That’s what Medicaid was designed for.”

The Senate GOP voted narrowly to move to a general debate on the package on Saturday. Final passage could come Monday. But one Republican, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, voted against moving the bill forward due to its Medicaid language.

Democrats, too, are looking to seize on the cuts to win back working class voters who have moved toward Trump since his political rise.

Mullin argued that Republicans are seeking to future-proof the program, refocusing Medicaid on what it was “designed for.”

“There’s 35 million people under the poverty line inside the United States,” Mullin told Welker. “And there’s 70 million people that are signed up for Medicaid. You’re going to tell me that there’s not room to cut fraud, waste, and abuse in the program?”

Sen. Thom Tillis, a two-term North Carolina Republican who was expected to contest one of 2026’s toughest Senate races, said Sunday he will not seek re-election.

Tillis made the announcement after voting “no” on a procedural vote to advance President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — the cornerstone of his domestic policy agenda. Trump subsequently attacked Tillis in a series of social media posts.

“In Washington over the last few years, it’s become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise, and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species,“ he said in a statement.

Tillis continued: “As many of my colleagues have noticed over the last year, and at times even joked about, I haven’t exactly been excited about running for another term. That is true since the choice is between spending another six years navigating the political theatre and partisan gridlock in Washington or spending that time with the love of my life Susan, our two children, three beautiful grandchildren, and the rest of our extended family back home. It’s not a hard choice, and I will not be seeking re-election.”

As Republicans in Congress look to get President Donald Trump’s sweeping megabill to the Oval Office by July 4, one Democratic Senator is predicting the bill will crater support for the GOP across the country.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday that the Medicaid cuts in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” will prove especially unpopular.

“I think the overwhelming amount of data shows that on this one, this is tax cuts for the wealthiest to end up cutting health care, plain and simple,” Warner said on “State of the Union.” “You can put any lipstick you want on this pig, but it’s still a pig.”

Senate Republicans on Saturday narrowly voted to start debate on the megabill, with just two members of the caucus, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, voting against moving forward. The chamber could likely pass the bill by Monday.

A June estimate from the Congressional Budget Office found that the bill and other health care rules could push 16 million people off health insurance. Warner told Tapper that it would “about double” the uninsured rate in his commonwealth of Virginia.

“The fact of the matter is, what this does baseline is all these cuts, all this cutback on health care to provide the wealthiest in our country a disproportionate share of tax cuts,” he said. “That just doesn’t seem fair. And the more we can get that out, I think this will be a political albatross.”

Senate Republicans on Saturday took a crucial step toward passing their sweeping domestic policy bill, voting 51-49 to start debate on the legislation.

Two GOP senators — Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — joined Democrats to oppose advancing the cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s second-term agenda. But several others came around after hours of last-ditch negotiations to keep the bill moving forward.

The vote came after a daylong scramble by GOP leaders to win over several Republican senators who were viewed as undecided or had vowed to block debate over their opposition to pieces of the bill — including an extended negotiating session that unfolded with various senators while the vote was underway.

Now the chamber is on track to pass the bill sometime Monday. Democrats are forcing Senate clerks to first read the legislation out loud, which is expected to happen overnight, before a maximum 20 hours of debate plus a marathon series of amendment votes.

“Fifty-three members will never agree on every detail of legislation, let’s face it. But Republicans are united in our commitment to what we’re doing in this bill,” Majority Leader John Thune said shortly before the vote. “It’s time to get this legislation across the finish line.”

Trump personally intervened Friday and Saturday to shore up the whip count. He reached out to Tillis on Friday night, according to a person granted anonymity to disclose private conversations. Tillis later confirmed the call, telling reporters he told Trump he could not support the bill because of the Medicaid language. Trump later attacked Tillis publicly and called for him to face a Republican primary challenger.

Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Sen. Rick Scott of Florida were at the White House shortly before the Senate’s vote. Johnson initially voted no, then went into a long stretch of negotiations with Thune, Vance and others alongside Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Rick Scott of Florida. In the end, they emerged and voted to advance the bill just after 11 p.m.

By Saturday afternoon, it was clear to GOP senators that Vice President JD Vance would need to be on standby for what would be a nailbiter. He interceded after the vote was called to win over Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, and then went to work on the other holdouts.

While enough GOP senators have voted to start debating the bill, it’s not yet assured there will be enough to pass it. Pieces of the bill remain in flux — not only due to Senate concerns, but also lingering opposition from some House Republicans. Several key issues, including the state-and-local-tax deduction and key Medicaid language, were addressed in updated text released late Friday night. But negotiations continues as leaders in both chambers work to ensure the Senate product can be passed in the House without changes and sent immediately to Trump’s desk.

Already GOP leaders have agreed to delay implementation of changes to a key Medicaid provision — a new cap on medical provider taxes, which most states use to fund their Medicaid programs — and have increased a rural hospital assistance fund from $15 billion to $25 billion.

Those changes were sufficient to win over Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who announced Saturday he would support the bill. But it wasn’t enough to sway holdouts in both chambers concerned that the health care language could lead to hospital closures in their states and districts.

While Sen. Susan Collins of Maine supported starting debate, she described herself as “leaning against” final passage if the Medicaid provisions don’t change before a final vote. Collins said she planned to offer several amendments reflecting her concerns.

“It is the majority leader’s prerogative to determine which bills to bring to the floor,” she told reporters. “That does not mean in any way that I’m satisfied with the provisions in this bill.”

Tillis told reporters that he would be a “no” on the final vote, barring dramatic changes to the Medicaid provisions.

“It would result in tens of billions of dollars in lost funding for North Carolina, including our hospitals and rural communities,” he said in a statement. “This will force the state to make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands in the expansion population, and even reducing critical services for those in the traditional Medicaid population.”

Johnson, Paul and Scott had each raised sharp concerns about the bill’s fiscal impacts, arguing it needed to cut more government spending. Paul, in particular, was deadset against its inclusion of a $5 trillion hike to the federal debt ceiling.

GOP leaders had more success putting out another fire: Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) warned shortly before the vote that he would not support opening debate because of a provision in the bill providing for the sale of public lands. About 40 minutes after delivering that ultimatum, he said in an X post he would instead seek to amend the bill and remove the provision.

Republicans also made changes in the draft text released overnight to more aggressively phase out clean-energy tax credits established under former President Joe Biden in a bid to win over House conservatives. That prompted new attacks on the bill from Elon Musk, the erstwhile Trump ally, who called the megabill “utter madness” and “political suicide for the Republican Party.”

Democrats are expected to use the marathon amendment process, known as vote-a-rama, to try to water down the bill’s changes to the energy provisions, as well as Medicaid, federal food assistance and other key social safety net items.But first Democrats want to slow things down. By forcing clerks to read the 940-page bill aloud — a process that is typically waived — they hope to win more time to draw attention to the bill’s most unpopular provisions.

Senate aides estimate reading could take about 15 hours, pushing final passage from Sunday into Monday unless Democrats unexpectedly yield back a significant amount of their debate time.

“Senate Republicans are scrambling to pass a radical bill, released to the public in the dead of night, praying the American people don’t realize what’s it,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “If Senate Republicans won’t tell the American people what’s in this bill, then Democrats are going to force this chamber to read it from start to finish.”

President Donald Trump said he would explore backing a primary challenger to two-term Sen. Thom Tillis Saturday — just hours after the North Carolina Republican voted against advancing the centerpiece of Trump’s legislative agena.

Trump berated Tillis in mutiple Truth Social posts, saying he was making a “big mistake” and that he would be meeting potential primary challenges as he was “looking for someone who will properly represent the Great People of North Carolina.”

Tillis has long expressed concerns about the impact of Medicaid changes in the bill on North Carolina and said Saturday he would not support the legislation unless changes are made. Trump did not mention the issue in his posts, but did detail Tillis’ earlier concerns with preserving some clean-energy tax breaks that Republicans are targeting.

North Carolina is the top pickup opportunity for Senate Democrats in 2026, and Tillis is a veteran of multiple tough races in the Tarheel State. In 2014, as speaker of the state House, he knocked off incumbent Kay Hagan in one of the closest Senate races of the cycle. Tillis then won narrowly in 2020 after his Democrat opponent, former state Sen. Cal Cunningham, got himself embroiled in a sexting scandal.

Tillis was already anticipating facing a strong Democratic opponent next year: Former Rep. Wiley Nickel has already announced a Senate bid, and popular former Gov. Roy Cooper is also mulling a run.

A Senate vote on advancing Republicans’ party-line domestic-policy bill has been held open for more than two hours as GOP leaders scramble for the final votes.

Vice President JD Vance arrived at the Capitol shortly after 8 p.m. to break a possible tie. Three Republican senators — Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — have already voted “no.” A fourth GOP opponent would at least temporarily sink the megabill and likely foil plans to get it to President Donald Trump’s desk by July 4.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Majority Whip John Barrasso, Finance Chair Mike Crapo and Budget Chair Lindsey Graham are meeting off the floor with Vance, Johnson and the three Republican holdouts — Sens. Mike Lee of Utah, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Rick Scott of Florida. The three are believed to be voting as a bloc; Lee and Scott have raised concerns about the level of spending cuts in the bill.

“We need more deficit reduction,” Lee said before the vote. Notably, he announced Saturday night he was dropping a provision to sell some public lands from the megabill amid intraparty opposition.

Thune was tight-lipped heading into the meeting saying only, “It’s a long vote.”

Earlier in the evening, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska made her fellow Republicans sweat, withholding her vote for nearly an hour while a gaggle of key leaders surrounded her on the Senate floor.

Murkowski, who had already secured major concessions for her home state, spent more than a half-hour in deep and sometimes animated conversations with Crapo, Graham, Barrasso and Thune, also talking separately to Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and John Curtis of Utah. At one point she held Vance’s hand while she talked with him one-on-one in the back of the chamber.

Graham could be heard loudly saying that to “start the process” would be “best.” Eventually she voted to move forward with the bill, with a big smile, but only after she retreated into the cloakroom for additional conversations with leaders and committee chairs.

Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.

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.

Benjamin Guggenheim contributed to this report.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this article misreported which senators met with Trump. They were Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.).

Senate Republicans stepped up their attacks on U.S. solar and wind energy projects by quietly adding a provision to their megabill that would penalize future developments with a new tax.

That new tax measure was tucked into the more than 900-page document released late Friday that also would sharply cut the tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act for solar and wind projects. Those cuts to the IRA credits were added after a late-stage push by President Donald Trump to crack down further on the incentives by requiring generation projects be placed in service by the end of 2027 to qualify.

The new excise tax is another blow to the fastest-growing sources of power production in the United States, and would be a massive setback to the wind and solar energy industries since it would apply even to projects not receiving any credits.

“It’s a kill shot. This new excise tax on wind and solar is designed to fully kill the industry,” said Adrian Deveny, founder and president of policy advisory firm Climate Vision, who helped craft the climate law as a former policy director for Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer.

Analysts at the Rhodium Group said in an email the new tax would push up the costs of wind and solar projects by 10 to 20 percent — on top of the cost increases from losing the credits.

“Combined with the likely onerous administrative reporting burden this provision puts in place, these cost increases will lead to even lower wind and solar installations. The impacts of this tax would also flow through to consumers in the form of higher electricity rates,” Rhodium said.

The provision as written appears to add an additional tax for any wind and solar project placed into service after 2027 — when its eligibility for the investment and production tax credits ends — if a certain percentage of the value of the project’s components are sourced from prohibited foreign entities, like China. It would apply to all projects that began construction after June 16 of this year.

The language would require wind and solar projects, even those not receiving credits, to navigate complex and potentially unworkable requirements that prohibit sourcing from foreign entities of concern — a move designed to promote domestic production and crack down on Chinese materials.

In keeping with GOP support for the fossil fuel industry, the updated bill creates a new production tax credit for metallurgical coal, which is used in steelmaking.

Elon Musk is once again bashing the Republican megabill.

Weeks after an initial tirade against the legislation, the former top White House staffer and current richest man in the world wrote Saturday on X that the “latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!”

“Utterly insane and destructive,” he added. “It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future.”

The bill significantly cuts subsidies for clean power sources like wind and solar, along with tax credits for buying electric vehicles and instead includes incentives for the coal industry.

Musk has intervened before to tank a major spending bill. The billionaire torpedoed a compromise government spending bill in December by repeatedly posting in opposition to it. This caused a number of Republicans to back away and nearly spaked a government shutdown.

At the time, Musk had far more influence as a close Trump ally and as the largest donor in support of Trump’s reelection bid. His influence in the GOP has waned after his controversial stint atop the Department of Government Efficiency initiative created repeated hassles for the White House.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told GOP members on a Saturday conference call to prepare for votes Tuesday evening or Wednesday on the sweeping Republican megabill, according to three people who were on the call and were granted anonymity to describe it.

Scalise and Speaker Mike Johnson addressed House Republicans as GOP leaders in the Senate raced to tweak and advance their version of the megabill. Johnson said on the call he has been working with Senate Republican leaders to shape the bill so the version that emerges from the other chamber can be passed in the House without changes and sent to President Donald Trump for enactment.

The leaders have been planning to iron out some issues in a final amendment before Senate passage, but Senate GOP leaders have pushed back hard on reversing deep Medicaid cuts — something dozens of House Republicans are concerned about.

Johnson also members to bring any remaining concerns directly to their GOP senators and to the White House — and to not air those grievances in public. House GOP leadership said they would stick with a promise to give members 48 hours notice of a vote so that lawmakers have adequate time to return to Washington.

House GOP leaders did not take questions on the call.