President Donald Trump is intensifying his public pressure campaign for Senate GOP holdouts to back the upper chamber’s version of the “big, beautiful” bill, arguing that failure to pass his sweeping tax and immigration bill “would be the ultimate betrayal.”
The White House issued an endorsement of the Senate bill Saturday morning touting the numerous benefits of the legislation, including its massive investments in border security and defense spending as well as enacting the largest cut to mandatory spending in history. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is eyeing a procedural vote as early as Saturday afternoon to commence a marathon session of voting to pass the Senate plan — but key GOP holdouts are threatening to delay its passage.
“[T]he Congress should immediately pass this bill and send it to the President’s desk by July 4, 2025, to show the American people that they are serious about ‘promises made, promises kept,’” the White House said in a statement of administrative policy, highlighting the president’s self-imposed deadline. “President Trump is committed to keeping his promises, and failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal.”
Several GOP senators have said they would oppose a procedural vote to advance the upper chamber’s budget bill if Thune moved to put a bill on the floor Saturday. The majority leader can afford to spare just three Republican votes assuming all Senate Democrats are present and vote “no” on the motion to proceed.
Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, a leading fiscal hawk in the upper chamber, announced Saturday that he would not vote to advance the Senate proposal until he receives scoring detailing the fiscal impacts of the bill’s various provisions. The Wisconsin Republican is advocating for a return to pre-pandemic spending levels and has frequently voiced concern that the Senate’s bill would increase budget deficits and add to the national debt.
“I’m not going to vote for a motion to proceed today,” Republican Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said on “Fox & Friends” Saturday morning. “We just got the bill, and I got my first copy about 1:23 [a.m.] in the morning.”
“You shouldn’t take the [former Speaker] Nancy Pelosi approach and pass this bill to find out what’s in. We need to know exactly what’s in it,” Johnson added. “We need to be thoughtful. This is a big bill. This is an important bill. There’s no need to rush it.”
The Wisconsin Republican has previously signaled that he would not bend to political pressure to support the bill if it increases deficit spending.
Johnson’s colleagues, Republican Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rick Scott of Florida are also advocating for deeper spending cuts within the Senate proposal. The three have suggested they could vote as a bloc, which would allow them to delay passage of the legislation if their needs are not met.
Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who frequently breaks with his party on fiscal matters, has warned that he will vote “no” on the president’s bill if the package includes a $5 trillion increase in the debt limit. The text unveiled shortly before midnight on Friday kept the debt ceiling hike in the Senate bill.
Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a moderate GOP senator up for reelection in 2026 — where he could face a competitive Democratic challenger — has also pledged to oppose advancing the legislation if his concerns about the bill’s reforms to Medicaid are not addressed.
The North Carolina Republican has suggested that the Senate’s proposal to reduce the cap on Medicaid provider taxes would cost his state tens of millions of dollars in federal Medicaid funding. The Senate plan notably delayed implementation of the provider tax crackdown in the most recent version of the bill, but it is unclear if that will be enough to win Tillis’ vote.
“I’m voting ‘no’ on the motion — period,” Tillis told reporters Friday evening. “It’s the fundamentals of the bill.”
“I’m assuming, unless the baseline transforms radically overnight, which I doubt it will … I’m just a ‘no’ and we’ll see where the negotiations go from there,” Tillis added.
Senate GOP leadership can breathe a sigh of relief that another potential holdout, Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, will vote “yes” on the motion to proceed. However, Collins said that she is “leaning against” supporting the bill during a vote on final passage if additional changes to the legislation are not incorporated.
Collins told reporters she will be “filing a number of amendments” to address various concerns with the bill.
Republican Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin dismissed concerns that holdouts would derail passage of the Senate bill this weekend.
“Everybody’s got concerns, but saying you’re voting ‘no’ and when you get to the floor and voting ‘no’ are two totally different things,” Mullin told reporters Saturday.
Despite various concerns about the fiscal impact of the president’s landmark bill and slashing entitlement program spending, the White House is reminding senators about the economic benefits Americans stand to gain with passage of the budget package.
“With its passage, Americans will keep more of their hard-earned money while taking home much bigger paychecks that will unleash economic growth nationwide,” the White House said. “Additionally, the bill will lower costs by unleashing American energy through incentivizing expedited permitting, opening up federal lands for production, and eliminating spending on wasteful environmental policies.”
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