With Republicans having passed President Donald Trump's controversial tax cut and health care rollback megabill, the fight now moves on to Trump's next piece of legislation: a $9 billion "rescission" package to eliminate funding for foreign aid and public broadcasting. But according to political observers, that bill is already facing a number of demands from GOP Senate lawmakers that could trigger yet another bruising fight.
According to Punchbowl News' Samantha Handler, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), who was the deciding vote to pass the tax bill even as she publicly complained about problems with it, "reiterates she wants changes to the rescissions package [and] predicts the amendment process 'will be fun'" — signaling another "vote-a-rama" process where lawmakers vote on an endless parade of changes to the legislation.
But it's not just Murkowski raising alarms.
Punchbowl's Andrew Desiderio further reported that Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a lawmaker much more loyal to Trump, "says he heard 'a lot of concerns raised' during GOP lunch about the rescissions package," and that Hawley added, “People have a lot of stuff they want changed.”
This follows previous reporting that many Republican senators are "queasy" at the idea of formally codifying Trump's cuts to foreign aid, which are projected to contribute to 14 million deaths worldwide in the next five years, as well as the cuts to public broadcasting, which Democrats have vowed to make a public fight over.
As with the tax bill, Republicans only need a simple majority because it can be passed under budget rules and will be exempt from the filibuster. However, Democrats believe they have greater leverage this time because Republicans need Democratic votes soon to pass a measure to keep the federal government from shutting down.