Trump bill live updates: Musk warns ‘Porky Pig Party’ of debt slavery as Senate ‘vote-a-rama’ heads to late night

A compromise deal among Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee to fix the 10-year moratorium on AI ultimately fell through.

Shortly thereafter, Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington State and Cruz’s counterpart on the commerce committee, announced a deal with a cosponsorship from Sen. Susan Collins, a crucial swing vote.

The initial 10-year moratorium on states regulating AI caused Republicans, including some House members who voted for the bill, tons of heartburn.

Former North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, is reportedly considering jumping into the ring to seek the Senate seat of outgoing Republican Thom Thillis, who announced his decision not to seek reelection over the weekend.

“Governor Cooper continues to strongly consider a run for the Senate and will decide in the coming weeks,” Morgan Jackson, Cooper’s top political adviser, told Axios.

He could face off against Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, who is also reportedly considering a run.

Elon Musk continues to voice his disapproval over the GOP megabill, which he argues will kill US renewable energy development and saddle the economy with growing debt.

He’s been expressing his criticisms in a series of tweets.

Just a day after saying she reached a deal with her GOP colleague Ted Cruz, Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee announced on Monday the agreement was off regarding artificial intelligence provisions in the Republican megabill.

Originally, Cruz and Blackburn agreed on proposing a “temporary pause” banning states from regulating AI for the next five years, in exchange for access to hundreds of millions in AI funding incentives.

“For as long as I’ve been in Congress, I’ve worked alongside federal and state legislators, parents seeking to protect their kids online, and the creative community in Tennessee to fight back against Big Tech’s exploitation by passing legislation to govern the virtual space,” Blackburn said in a statement to The hill. “While I appreciate Chairman Cruz’s efforts to find acceptable language that allows states to protect their citizens from the abuses of AI, the current language is not acceptable to those who need these protections the most. This provision could allow Big Tech to continue to exploit kids, creators, and conservatives. Until Congress passes federally preemptive legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act and an online privacy framework, we can’t block states from making laws that protect their citizens.”

Donald Trump’s domestic policy agenda is facing one of its most critical moments so far, as the Senate considers final passage of his Big, Beautiful Bill spending package.

That didn’t stop the president on Monday from advertising a new business line: Trump Fragrances.

“They’re called ‘Victory 45-47’ because they’re all about Winning, Strength, and Success — For men and women,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, in yet another blending of his political and business roles. “Get yourself a bottle, and don’t forget to get one for your loved ones too. Enjoy, have fun, and keep winning!”

Progress on the Senate’s “vote-a-rama” for Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill spending package is moving slowly, raising the possibility the deliberations continue into the wee hours of Tuesday morning.

When will the process finally end? According to Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, only the Republican Majority Leader, John Thune, really knows, and even that’s not so certain.

“Ask Mr. Thune,” the New York Democrat told reporters on Monday evening. “He’s the one having the problems,”

Because of the bizarro rules that come with budget reconciliation — the process Republicans are using to pass the bill by a simple majority and sidestep a Democratic filibuster — senators can file an unlimited number of amendments, hence the “rama” in the vote-a-rama.

Typically, these votes serve one of a handful of purposes: First, to put forth a messaging amendment to shame the other side; second, to push in a policy that didn’t make it into the final bill because of the Byrd rule; or third, to allow an errant member to say they fought for a policy they know won’t pass.

The Senate’s parliamentarian applies the Byrd Rule — named for the late majority leader Robert Byrd — to determine if a piece of the legislation passes the strict criteria. If it does not, then the majority can offer it on the floor, but it needs 60 votes to stay in. All of this can create for a rapid fire series of call-and-response amendments.

Below are four amendments to keep an eye on:

Renewable energy: One major sticking point between Republicans is that some of them actually like the renewable energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act. The final text of the bill aggressively rolls back the renewable energy tax credits for plants put “in service” after December 31, 2027.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski told The Independent, “I don’t want to see us backslide on clean energy.”

As a result, she and Iowa’s Republican Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley want to propose an alternative amendment that is not as aggressive. But Grassley said “we need to find an offset” to pay for the credit.

More aggressive Medicaid amendments: No part of the bill has caught as much flack from Democrats as the Medicaid policies, such as the work requirements and taxes on providers like hospitals and nursing homes.

But for some Republicans, that’s not enough. Specifically, their sticking point is the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare. Under the law, the federal government will cover 90 percent of the cost for states that expand Medicaid eligibility to 138 percent of the Federal Poverty Line.

Both red and blue states have done it. But Sen. Rick Scott of Florida has an amendment that would end the new eligibility for beneficiaries after 2030 while grandfathering eligible recipients who enrolled before 2030.

This would have sweeping implications since many states have “trigger laws” where they would be forced to pull back their money. This is a must-pass for some of the fiscal conservatives like Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming. All three of them hail from states that did not expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. But Republicans from states that expanded Medicaid might find it tougher to stomach.

A ban on gender-affirming care: Republicans have made policy restricting access to gender-affirming care their main sticking point ever since Trump beat Kamala Harris with his famous “Kamala is for They/Them” ad, which hit Harris for providing health care for undocumented immigrants in prison.

Initially, the House version would ban coverage of gender-affirming care for Medicaid and CHIP recipients who are minors. But a last-minute deal before it passed the House struck the term “for minors,” meaning it would ban Medicaid and CHIP from covering gender-affirming care for anyone. However, the Senate Parliamentarian found this did not comply with the Byrd Rule.

Still, Republicans included it in the final text of the bill. This means Democrats will raise a point of order to trigger the 60-vote threshold to keep it in. Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Finance Committee, whose staff prepared arguments before the parliamentarian, told The Independent he would raise a point of order, saying, “This is a private choice for adults. It should belong to them.”

The fight for rural hospitals aka the Collins Kickback: As always, it comes back to health care. Some Republicans warn that the cap on provider taxes will limit states’ ability to raise matching dollars to receive Medicaid dollars. Hospitals warn that this could cause rural hospitals to close.

To tide over some Republicans, the bill includes a $25 billion fund to shore up rural hospitals. But for Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who hails from a blue state with large rural populations and is up for re-election, that may not be enough. Her amendment to up the fund to $50 billion. But this might make the fiscal conservatives queasy.

Senate Republicans on Monday shot down an attempt from Democrats and Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to remove a provision from the Big, Beautiful Bill that would strip Planned Parenthood of its ability to receive Medicaid funding.

The GOP blocked the attempt 51 – 49.

“It will take another step toward enacting Republicans’ plan for a backdoor nationwide abortion ban. How does it do this? By defunding Planned Parenthood,” Washington Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat, said of the vote.

Whether that will be the case if it passes remains to be debated, but whatever the impact, the bill will be landing at a complicated time for the US economy.

As The New York Times notes, the US dollar is off to its worst start in half a century, with the currency weakening more than 10 percent compared to the currencies of major US training partners.

Protesters appeared in- and outside the Capitol on Monday to protest Donald Trump’s Big, Beautiful Bill spending package, which is currently undergoing a “vote-a-rama” session in the Senate.

The U.S. Capitol Police told The Associated Press 38 people were arrested in the demonstrations, including inside the Capitol rotunda at an intersection near the legislature.