The Senate on Tuesday broke a record for the most amendments proposed during a vote-a-rama on President Trump’s proposed One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Just after 7 a.m., the Senate voted on the bill’s 45th pitched amendment, topping the prior record of 44 amendments during budget resolution voting in 2008.
Vote-a-rama is the unofficial term given to marathon, rapid-vote sessions in which senators can propose an unlimited number of amendments to pending legislation. They usually occur during consideration of budget-related measures, with the first surfacing during the passage of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
The record was broken Tuesday with Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s proposed amendment to the OBBBA that would have slashed a provision allocating $100 million for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
HIs proposed amendment failed in a 50–50 vote, since ties don’t pass, and Veep JD Vance did not intervene and cast the tie-breaking vote for it.
But the entire megabill did pass the Senate around noon in a 51 to 50 vote, with Vance breaking the tie as Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) opposed it.
The amendments were used to hash out some of the last-minute differences between Republicans that needed to be addressed to get the megabill across the finish line.
One issue that threatened to derail passage of the megabill had been a 10-year moratorium on states from regulating artificial intelligence.
Multiple House lawmakers, such as firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), had railed against that provision, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) hinted it could be a dealbreaker for her.
But early Tuesday, the Tennessee Republican furnished an amendment to strike that language altogether after an attempted compromise collapsed. Her amendment passed with 99 votes in support, with Tillis being the only one opposed.
Other amendments sought to attack various components of the mammoth legislation.
Blackburn, as well as Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), made different attempts to slash Medicaid funding for illegal migrants but ultimately came up short.
Collins attempted to ratchet up taxes on individuals making more than $25 million a year to 39.6% to double the existing rural hospital fund in the megabill to $50 billion. That effort was crushed in a 22–78 vote.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) attempted to completely eliminate wind and solar tax credits but lost that effort.
Meanwhile, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) successfully tacked on an amendment to cut unemployment benefit funding for millionaires, which she estimated could save $100 million.
Most of the amendments that were voted on came from Democrats who looked for ways to undercut the marquee GOP legislative bundle or exploit divisions among Senate Republicans.
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