Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is scheduled to meet with Senate Republicans at lunch Friday in an attempt to keep President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” on track amid strong pushback from GOP lawmakers over cuts to Medicaid and an expensive proposal to raise the $10,000 cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions.
Bessent will explain to GOP senators a tentative deal the White House reached with House Republicans from New York, New Jersey and California who want to raise the SALT cap.
“There’s a tentative deal struck between the House and the White House that has to be sold to the Senate,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said Friday.
“We don’t have a deal yet but I think Scott’s going to help and I think we’re going to try to explain the dynamics the best we can,” he said
Bessent will sit down with Republican senators who are scrambling to rework the Senate’s version of a massive bill to implement Trump’s agenda.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) hopes to schedule a vote as soon as Saturday to proceed to the budget reconciliation package.
But whether GOP leaders can stick to that schedule depends on a variety of factors, including how the Senate parliamentarian rules on key elements of the measure.
Mullin told reporters that he thinks the Senate will vote to proceed to the “big, beautiful bill” late Saturday.
“Maybe late tomorrow. I think we have to get on the clock at some point tomorrow,” he said.
But Mullin predicted that GOP senators could be hashing out the details of the massive package as they grind their way through a series of votes known as a vote-a-rama.
“I think we negotiate all the way until we get through vote-a-rama,” he said.
A Senate Republican aide said the first vote on the bill could happen on Saturday but timing depends on finishing discussions with the parliamentarian and drafting the final text.
Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough has rejected an array of provisions in the bill, including more than $250 billion in proposed spending cuts.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said he doesn’t know when the negotiators will finish drafting the Senate bill.
“I can’t predict,” he said.
Crapo said his staff is still reworking a provision to cap states use of health care provider taxes.
The parliamentarian said the proposed cap on health care provider taxes failed to pass the Byrd Rule, dealing Republicans a major setback.
The health care provider cap is projected to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in federal Medicaid spending.
