Reporter’s Notebook: Why the Senate is unlikely to debate the ‘big, beautiful bill’ until next week

Fox has learned it is doubtful that Senate Republicans will put the “big, beautiful bill” on the floor for debate and a vote this week.

That will likely wait until the week of June 22. This potentially jeopardizes final passage of the measure through the Senate and House by July 4.

The Senate Finance Committee is expected to release its text of the bill as early as Monday. That section of the legislation is the most expansive and probably the most controversial. Key tax provisions like SALT (state and local tax reductions), potential spending cuts and changes to Medicare and Medicaid all appear in this section of the legislation.

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Senators and Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough will then begin the process of weeding out provisions that do not comport with strict Senate Budget provisions. That’s why the plan probably isn’t ready for debate and a “vote-a-rama” until the week after next. 

If the Senate advances the bill, the House will have a tight window to either accept the Senate changes and green-light the bill before July 4 – or bounce it back to the Senate with yet another set of changes.

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Such a scenario would most certainly stretch out the process beyond the July 4 deadline. It would also compel the Senate to take a fourth vote-a-rama in just a matter of months. That’s where the Senate votes for hours on end with one roll call after another.

Keep in mind that July 4 is merely an aspirational deadline, not a hard one. The true deadline is early August. That’s when the Treasury Department says the U.S. will collide with the debt ceiling. A debt ceiling increase is part of the big, beautiful bill.