It took 16 hours to read Trump’s 940-page, foot-high bill aloud. Now the long debate begins

WASHINGTON AP Hours before a tumultuous nearing-midnight vote on President Donald Trump s package of tax breaks spending cuts and increased deportation money a Republican senator stood on the chamber floor and implored the plan s critics Read the bill After the dramatic - roll call late Saturday Senate Democrats did exactly that Unable to stop the march toward passage of the -page bill by Trump s Fourth of July deadline the minority party in Congress is using the tools at its disposal to delay and drag out the process If Senate Republicans won t tell the American people what s in this bill then Democrats are going to force this chamber to read it from start to finish disclosed Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer By Sunday midafternoon various hours later the clerk s reading of the nearly foot-high bill was done And within moments the Senate launched debate But it s still going to be a while at least hours of speeches stretching late into the night The slow-walking tactic points to complicated days ahead It s taken a while to get here reported Sen Lindsey Graham R-S C the Budget Committee chairman but we ll have a debate worthy of this great country Republicans who have control of the House and Senate are closer to passing Trump s signature domestic strategy package yet there is political unease Democratic lawmakers at once launched fresh challenges against it decrying the way they say Republicans are hiding the true costs by using rare budgeting A new analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget office Sunday estimates the Senate bill would increase the deficit by nearly trillion from to a nearly trillion increase over the House-passed bill It also located that million more Americans would become uninsured by if the bill became law more than with the House s approach Republican holdouts remain reluctant to give their votes and their leaders have almost no room to spare given their narrow majorities Essentially they can afford three dissenters in the Senate with its - GOP edge and about as various in the House if all members are present and voting House Speaker Mike Johnson R-La had sent his colleagues home for the weekend Trump who has at times allowed wiggle room on his deadline kept the pressure on lawmakers to finish But the tense scene as voting came to a standstill for more than three hours Saturday night let the internal discord play out in inhabitants In the end Republicans Sen Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky opposed the motion to move ahead joining all Democrats Trump noticed He threatened to campaign against Tillis who was worried that Medicaid cuts would leave a large number of without strength care in his state Trump badgered Tillis again on Sunday morning saying the senator has hurt the great people of North Carolina Later Sunday Tillis issued a lengthy comment announcing he would not seek reelection in Republicans are using their majorities to push aside Democratic opposition but have run into a series of political and procedures setbacks Not all GOP lawmakers are on board with proposals to reduce spending on Medicaid food stamps and other programs as a way to help cover the cost of extending a few trillion in Trump tax breaks Renewed pressure to oppose the bill came from Elon Musk who criticized it as utterly insane and destructive If the Senate is able to pass the package in the days ahead the bill would return to the House for a final round of votes before it could reach the White House Tax breaks and core GOP priorities At its core the law would make permanent a multitude of of the tax breaks from Trump s first term that would otherwise expire by year s end if Congress fails to act resulting in a prospective tax increase on Americans The bill would add new breaks including no taxes on tips and commit billion to national precaution including for Trump s mass deportation agenda But the cutbacks to Medicaid food stamps and green strength investments are also causing dissent within GOP ranks Sen Ron Wyden D-Ore noted the environmental rollbacks would amount to a death sentence for America s wind and solar industries The Republicans are relying on the reductions to offset the lost tax revenues but various lawmakers say the cuts go too far particularly for people receiving fitness care through Medicaid Meanwhile conservatives worried about the nation s debt are pushing for steeper cuts Democrats can t filibuster but can stall Using a congressional process called budget reconciliation the Republicans can muscle the bill through on a simple majority vote in the Senate rather than the typical -vote threshold needed to overcome objections Without the filibuster Democrats in the minority have to latch on to other tools to mount their objections One is the full reading of the bill text which has been done in past situations Sen Ron Johnson R-Wis forced a reading of a COVID relief package Democrats also intend to use their full hours of available debate time now underway And then Democrats are prepared to propose dozens of amendments to the package that would be considered in an all-night voting session or all-day depending on the hour A roll call full of drama As Saturday s vote tally teetered attention turned to Sen Lisa Murkowski R-Alaska who was surrounded by GOP leaders in intense conversation She voted yes Several provisions in the package are designed for her state in Alaska A short time later Majority Leader John Thune R-S D drew holdouts Sen Rick Scott of Florida Mike Lee of Utah and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming to his office Vice President JD Vance joined in The talks dragged on Then Vance led them all back in to vote Later Scott declared he had met with the president adding We all want to get to yes Lee stated the group had an internal discussion about the strategy to achieve more savings and more deficit reduction and I feel good about the direction where this is going and more to come Associated Press writers Ali Swenson Fatima Hussein and Michelle L Price contributed to this overview