Senate Conclusion of Debate, Vote-a-Rama, and Vote on Final Passage Of the Alternative Budget Reconciliation Bill Take Place Today And So Does PSLF Federal Negotiated Rulemaking
Overview
Just before midnight on Saturday, the U.S. Senate completed a procedural vote (51-49) clearing the way for actual debate on the Senate Republican’s reworked substitute to H.R. 1 – The One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Immediately following the vote, Senate Democrats asked for a complete reading of the entire 940-page bill on the Senate floor, which took almost sixteen hours to complete. Following the complete reading of the bill by Senate clerk’s, at approximately 3 PM ET yesterday, the U.S. Senate began up to twenty (20) hours of debate – equally divided between the two sides – on the bill released by Senate Republicans on Saturday.
As of this morning, the Senate is moving forward with votes on amendments to the Senate GOP’s bill. Often referred to as a vote-a-rama, under budget reconciliation rules, an unlimited number of amendments can be offered for consideration. As we construct this update, CSPEN Is aware of only three amendments having been filed seeking revisions to Title VIII-The Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions portion of the mega-bill, but there could be more…and there are already many, many more filed seeking revisions to other sections of the legislation. Here is a brief summary of the three Title VIII amendments which may be brought to the Senate for consideration, as well as a couple from Title VII-Finance that we thought were important to note as well.
Senate HELP Amendments
Amendment #2361 – Offered by Senator Hirono (D-HI)
The amendment seeks to provide the funds necessary to increase the total maximum Federal Pell Grant award per student by $7,400.
Amendment #2362 – Offered by Senator Hirono (D-HI)
The amendment seeks to provide the funds necessary to increase the total maximum Federal Pell Grant award per student by $19,000.
Amendment #2370 – Offered by Senator Ernst (R-IA)
The amendment seeks to require labor organizations for the use of federal resources.
Senate Finance Amendments
Amendment #2382 – Offered by Senators Hirono (D-HI), Kaine (D-VA), Reed (D-RI), and Van Hollen (D-MD)
The amendment seeks to eliminate a program of qualified elementary education scholarships for public, private, or religious schools.
Amendment #2383 – Offered by Senator Hirono (D-HI)
The amendment would prohibit publicly traded securities from being included as qualified contributions to scholarship granting organizations.
Amendment #90204 – Offered by Senator Blunt Rochester (D-DE)
The amendment seeks to create a tax cut for veterans recently separated from military service.
Once the vote-a-rama is completed, the Senate will then proceed to a vote on final passage. As was the case with the critical motion to proceed on Saturday, the Republicans will then need a simple majority vote on the final bill to pass it and send it back to the House for a vote on final passage. While the GOP was successful in getting fifty-one votes to bring the bill to the floor, it remains to be seen if the Senate Majority Leader Thune and the President will be able to prevent more than three Republicans from voting against the final bill. It has been publicly noted that Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina are almost certain to be “no” votes. Many eyes will be on a group of other Senators who voted “yea” to move forward with the debate, but could still vote against the final bill. That list includes Senators Johnson of Wisconsin, Lee of Utah, Murkowski of Alaska and Collins of Maine among others.
What’s Next
Over the weekend, CSPEN did develop a comprehensive Section-by-Section of the Senate substitute. Once the Senate debate and any amendments are added through the ongoing process, we will adjust the draft and share a final copy with the higher education community via our website. We anticipate that this will be posted late this evening.
