Warnock calls for Senate to reject Trump's 'Big Beautiful' bill

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Senator Raphael Warnock during a pen and pad meeting with reporters in the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Saturday, June 28, 2025. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock is urging his fellow lawmakers to do everything they can to stall the vote on President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks and spending cuts.

Warnock and other Democrats hope to stall the bill over issues such as tax cuts and the trimming of Medicaid money for states.

SEE THE LATEST ON THE BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL VOTING

What we know:

An all-night session to consider an endless stream of proposed amendments to the package, in what’s called a vote-a-rama, was abruptly postponed after a weekend of setbacks. It’s now scheduled to launch as soon as the Senate gavels open. With Democrats united against the Republican president’s legislation and eagerly lined up to challenge it, the voting could take all day.

The hours ahead will be pivotal for the Republicans, who have control of the Congress and are racing against Trump’s Fourth of July deadline to wrap up work. The 940-page "One Big Beautiful Bill Act," as it is now formally titled, has consumed Congress as its shared priority with the president, with no room politically to fail, even as not all Republicans are on board.

The bill includes some $4 trillion in tax cuts, making permanent Trump’s 2017 rates, which would expire at the end of the year if Congress fails to act, while adding the new ones he campaigned on, including no taxes on tips.

The Senate package would roll back billions of dollars in green energy tax credits that Democrats warn will wipe out wind and solar investments nationwide and impose $1.2 trillion in cuts, largely to Medicaid and food stamps, by imposing work requirements, making sign-up eligibility more stringent and changing federal reimbursements to states.

Additionally, the bill would provide a $350 billion infusion for border and national security, including for deportations, some of it paid for with new fees charged to immigrants.

A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that 11.8 million more Americans would become uninsured by 2034 if the bill became law. It also said the package would increase the deficit by nearly $3.3 trillion over the next decade.

What they're saying:

Speaking on the Senate floor overnight, Warnock called on his colleagues in both parties to reject the tax bill, arguing that it was not in the American people's best interest.

"If they enact these deep cuts to Medicaid, as they are positioned not to extend these tax credits, they are raising the cost of healthcare for all of us," the senator said. "Even if you are on private insurance, you are not safe. Your healthcare is about to go up. Your hospital might close because they're cutting these clean energy tax cuts, your utility bills are about to go up. And so I have a question tonight: Who voted for that? ... Who voted for everybody's health care premiums to go up and their hospitals to be closed? Here's what I know. Folks back in Georgia didn't vote for that. They voted for me, and they voted for Donald Trump, but they didn't vote for that."

He pointed to the analysis by the CBO of the deficit increases.

"The American people do not want to rob our children of food and health care, and then burden them with trillions in debt to give billionaires and wealthy corporations another tax cut. The people do not want this bill," he said.

What's next:

House Speaker Mike Johnson’s leadership team has recalled lawmakers back to Washington for voting in the House as soon as Wednesday, if the legislation can first clear the Senate.

President Trump says that he wants to sign the bill into law by the Fourth of July.