Washington Wednesday: Trump’s bill squeaks through

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NICK EICHER, HOST: It’s Wednesday, the 2nd of July.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Nick Eicher.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Time now for a special edition of Washington Wednesday. Today we continue our coverage of Supreme Court decisions with a case on protecting kids from online pornography.

But first, more on the Senate’s marathon session to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill.

From WORLD’s Washington bureau, here is reporter Leo Briceno.

LEO BRICENO: Getting President Trump’s legislative agenda over the Senate’s finish line after a 26 hour marathon vote session required some creativity. Majority Leader John Thune:

THUNE: Mr. President, it's been a long road to get to today.

Lawmakers ironed out changes that would win over holdouts. One sticking point was a 10-year moratorium on state regulations for artificial intelligence. Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn worked with Texas Senator Ted Cruz to change that to a 5 year block on state AI laws. But in the early hours of Tuesday, Blackburn changed course.

BLACKBURN: This body has proven that they cannot legislate on emerging technology… There are all of these pieces of legislation dealing with AI that we haven't passed, but you know who has passed it? It is our states.

Blackburn then introduced an amendment to strip out the AI provision altogether and it passed 99-1. Only Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina voted against it.

Another change pushed back the deadline for phasing out clean energy subsidies passed under President Biden, a key concession made to win over the support of Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. Renewable energy construction projects would still be eligible to receive government help if their construction begins before the end of 2027.

But the farthest reaching change affects Medicaid policy by limiting how much states can tax their own healthcare providers to raise funds. Under current law, the federal government matches at least one dollar for every dollar states raise on their own. By taxing their own hospitals and clinics, states can raise money, get their federal match, and send resources back to their providers. Right now, states can tax individual providers up to 6% of their individual revenues to finance Medicaid. The bill would lower that to 3.5% by 2027.

VANCE: The question occurs on passage of the bill as amended.

In the end, Vice President JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote. Three Republicans voted against the bill’s passage: Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina.

The bill now heads to the House of Representatives where its fate is uncertain. Texas Congressman Chip Roy is one of a handful of House Republicans dissatisfied with the Senate’s version of the bill. On Friday, I asked Roy about the July 4th deadline.

BRICENO: Do you think Republicans should consider pushing back their self -imposed deadline to take some of the pressure off and getting these notifications right?

ROY: Talk to somebody who's established the deadline, I have not. I mean, to me, the deadline is getting the policy right.

Speaker Johnson has said he wants to bring the bill to a vote on Wednesday afternoon. With all Democrats planning to vote against the bill, Johnson can only afford to lose three Republican votes.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Leo Briceno in Washington.

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