Alliance Alert: As the House-passed budget bill is now being reviewed by the Senate, key Republican Senators are raising serious concerns—and that gives us both opportunities and challenges in shaping what comes next. As Senate Majority Leader John Thune made clear: “We are going to write our own bill.”
That means this is not a done deal—but we need an all-hands-on-deck response to influence what stays and what goes. Many states have grave concerns about how this will affect their ability to provide needed services to people, including possible reductions in the area of $20 billion for New York State, $5.4 billion in New York City, $300 million for the NYC Health and Hospital system and $10 billion resulting in the direct loss of over 78,000 healthcare jobs.
We must come out strong to oppose these cuts!
Encouraging Comments from key Senators:
- Senate Majority Leader John Thune (SD): “We are going to write our own bill.”
- Sen. Susan Collins (ME): “I have said and made clear that I do not want to take away Medicaid benefits.”
- Sen. Lisa Murkowski (AK): Strong opposition to Medicaid work requirements, calling them “very, very, very challenging, if not impossible” to implement.
- Sen. Josh Hawley (MO): Criticized House’s Medicaid cuts and is pushing for a stronger child tax credit than the House’s $2,500. Says several other GOP Senators agree.
- Sen. Mike Rounds (SD): Demands removal of Trump-backed spectrum auction plan, calling it a red line.
Deepening Attacks on the Safety Net from other Senators
- Sen. Ron Johnson (WI): Says House cuts aren’t enough—wants far deeper reductions to federal programs.
- Sen. Kevin Cramer (ND): Wants an even “more aggressive approach” to Medicaid reforms—singled out limiting states’ ability to use provider taxes, a move too extreme even for the House.
- Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC): Dismissed House’s $1.5 trillion in cuts as inadequate, pushing for harsher reductions.
Where Things Stand
This bill must pass the Senate, where changes are likely. Then it returns to the House for another vote. This is our moment to shape the outcome.
We and our allies must come out strong and demand that the Senate:
- Reject Medicaid work requirements
- Drop harmful cuts to health and safety net programs
- Expand—not weaken—the child tax credit
- Ensure transparency and public input in all rulemaking
What Needs to Happen Now
- Flood Senate offices with calls—especially from constituents in swing states—demanding protection for Medicaid, safety net programs, and working families.
- Host media events—press conferences, rallies, speak-outs—early next week following Memorial Day to highlight:
- The harm these cuts will cause
- The political backroom deals being made
- The real stories of people impacted
- Amplify messages on social media and through coalition partners to ensure visibility and public pressure.
We are far from the finish line. But the Senate debate opens a critical window for influence. Let’s stay coordinated, strategic, and relentless:
Here are two actions you can take today!
- Email Senators by visiting Take Action Now!
- Call them at 1-855-245-3682 to talk to your representatives and tell them to vote NO on the reconciliation bill.
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‘We Can’t Afford It’: Senate GOP Balks at House Mega Bill as Messy Fight Awaits
By Manu Raju, Alison Main and Sarah Ferris | CNN | May 22, 2025
Before Speaker Mike Johnson could get his first real stretch of sleep in three days, the House GOP’s painstakingly drafted “big, beautiful bill” was running into resistance in the Senate.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski railed against the bill’s work requirements for Medicaid. Sen. Mike Rounds said the spectrum auction plan — championed by President Donald Trump — “has got to come out.” Senate Majority Leader John Thune did not embrace the New York House Republicans’ big tax deduction win. (SALT that allows 40k worth of state and local taxes to come out).
And Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri — who has been one of the Senate’s most vocal critics of the House’s Medicaid plans is eying another big change as well. He wants a more robust child tax credit than the $2,500 included in the House bill: “It needs to be higher.”
Then there’s the gang of Senate fiscal hawks vowing to cut far deeper to federal programs than even the hardliner House Freedom Caucus.
“Somebody’s got to be the dad that says, ‘I know y’all want to go to Disney World, but we can’t afford it.’ I guess I’m going to be that guy,” said GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, who dismissed House Republicans’ $1.5 trillion in spending cuts as too miniscule.
House GOP leaders just spent months mollifying dozens of holdouts from the hardliner and moderate camps to support a final bill, steering it through their slim margins. Now, it’s Thune’s turn. Thune and his leadership team will now begin the messy work of drafting a compromise bill that can pass their own staunchly divided conference, with few votes to lose.
And he’ll have to hope the House will accept it.
Thune’s math will be almost as complicated: Already, GOP Sen. Rand Paul has vowed to oppose the bill if it raises the debt limit — something Trump has demanded. And his more moderate senators, like Murkowski, are raising alarm bells at certain Medicaid provisions.
“We are going to write our own bill,” Thune told reporters Thursday, noting that the House gave them “a good product to work with.” Asked about the issue of Northeastern Republicans’ red line for costly tax breaks over the local levies they face, for instance, Thune said: “The House had to make a deal. But our members want to be heard on it and I assume we’ll have something to say.”
Like in the House, one of the biggest sticking points will involve Medicaid, the low-income health program that enrolls more than 71 million people. Republicans have been eager to rein in spending on the program since Democrats’ 2010 health care law dramatically increased federal spending on the program. But the Senate GOP, like in the House, is deeply divided about how far to go.
“There are provisions in there that are very, very, very challenging, if not impossible, for us to implement,” Murkowski said of the House GOP’s plans to boot able-bodied adults off Medicaid if they don’t fulfill certain work requirements by December 2026.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, another potential Senate swing vote, said she is open to work requirements for able-bodied individuals as long as they are “carefully drafted.”
“I have said and made clear that I do not want to take away Medicaid benefits,” Collins said, adding that she will be closely reviewing the House GOP bill.
But other Senate Republicans suggested they will seek even bigger cuts to programs like Medicaid to pass the bill.
Sen. Kevin Cramer told CNN that he thinks the Senate will add “more spending cut opportunities” and a “little more aggressive approach” to reforms for programs like Medicaid. He singled out one policy — limiting states’ ability to levy taxes on health care providers, known as the Medicaid provider tax — that was too controversial to pass the House.
“At some point, we have to send the bill back to them and they’ll have a binary decision to make. And it will be, ‘Is a yes vote in passage better than if it doesn’t pass?’ I hope that’s the way they’ll look at it,” he said.
Senate hardliners ready to weigh in
As the House GOP delivered its bill across the Capitol, the hardline House Freedom Caucus warned their Senate counterparts not to water down their $1.5 trillion in spending cuts.
But some of the Senate’s own budget hawks were blunt that they didn’t think the House GOP’s changes went far enough.
“You had your chance. There’s some of these cuts that are not real, and we’re talking about over a decade, you know, if you do a trillion and a half, that’s like a percent and a half,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, the GOP budget chairman. “So, let’s don’t get higher on our horse here that we’ve somehow made some major advancement of reducing spending, because we didn’t.”
Johnson, the Wisconsin senator who often backchannels with the Freedom Caucus, made clear he plans to force his party into a bigger discussion on spending cuts. And he said there are four other Republicans who are on the same page with seeking those spending cuts — enough to scuttle the bill if they vote against it.
“I’ve been focusing on spending, spending, spending, spending. They were focusing on tax cuts, which, I mean, that’s fun to do, right? I mean, everybody loves tax cuts,” Johnson said.
Rounds told CNN that while the House has had the opportunity to make changes, “once the Senate weighs in on it, I think we’ll have a different opinion about what the bill looks like.” And Rounds has his own red line for the House bill — removing the House GOP’s policy to allow spectrum auction to help raise funds for the bill.
“We can negotiate about a lot of other things, except for spectrum, which has got to come out,” he said, adding that there are “a number of us that can’t” support the bill without that change.
“We’re a long ways from the finish line,” Rounds said of the coming weeks and months.
CNN’s Ted Barrett, Jenna Monnin and Casey Riddle contributed to this report.