Summer is heating up in Washington DC and contentious, wide-reaching changes are being discussed. Ahead of a coming recess, lawmakers are looking to get bills over the finish line.
With a Congressional recess scheduled for the first week of July, proposals like the reconciliation bill are under the spotlight in DC.
South Dakota Republican Sen. Mike Rounds said he’s confident his party can get the Trump-backed bill across the line.
“The House passed their version of it over to the Senate with the expectation the Senate would make modifications to the Reconciliation Bill," Rounds said. "We hope to have a consensus among Republican Senators — we have at least 51 of the 53 in agreement. We know at least one of them says they’re going to disagree with it regardless, but the other 52 members are still open to try to find a path to get to a yes vote.”
A reconciliation bill cannot be filibustered in the Senate, meaning it requires only a simple majority to pass. With Republicans in control of the White House, a tiebreaking vote would fall on the President of the Senate, Vice President JD Vance.
Considering the path forward looks positive for that bill, that could mean changes to Medicaid and SNAP, or food assistance benefits. Rounds contends it’s a matter of regulating who has access to benefits when considering U.S. debts.
“The availability of both the SNAP program and Medicaid assistance was being made available regardless of whether you were working or not," Rounds said. "What we’re trying to say, based upon the fact we have about a $36 trillion debt right now, most taxpayers would say ‘I don’t mind at all providing health assistance for people that need it, as long as they’re trying themselves to go to work.’ The same with the SNAP program.”
Ultimately, if passed, the House-approved version of this bill cuts as much as $300 billion from SNAP alone according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.