{"id":10331,"date":"2025-06-16T12:02:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T12:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-crapo-to-answer-big-megabill-questions\/"},"modified":"2025-06-16T12:02:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T12:02:21","slug":"capitol-agenda-crapo-to-answer-big-megabill-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/capitol-agenda-crapo-to-answer-big-megabill-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitol agenda: Crapo to answer big megabill questions"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Senate Finance is expected to reveal at least some of its tweaks to the House-passed \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d Monday, but the panel\u2019s text will likely include placeholders for key Medicaid and tax provisions as negotiations continue.<\/p>\n

Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) will brief Senate Republicans on his proposals around 6 p.m., three people granted anonymity to share the unannounced plans told Blue Light News.<\/p>\n

Expect the state-and-local-tax deduction to be one of the TBDs as GOP senators continue to hash out how much they want to roll back the House\u2019s $40,000 SALT cap.<\/p>\n

Senate Majority Leader John Thune teased a \u201ccompromise position\u201d on SALT in a pre-taped Fox News Sunday interview. He said there \u201cisn\u2019t a high level of interest\u201d among senators to follow the House in quadrupling the $10,000 limit that\u2019s in law today.<\/p>\n

Thune insisted that President Donald Trump\u2019s tax priorities \u2014 no taxes on tips and overtime \u2014 will be \u201cincorporated\u201d in the Senate\u2019s version of the megabill, despite Senate Republicans\u2019 desire to trim them in favor of making business tax incentives permanent.<\/p>\n

A person granted anonymity to discuss the negotiations tells Blue Light News that Senate Republicans still plan to make those business tax provisions permanent \u2014 a win for Thune, Crapo and other Finance members.<\/p>\n

With the Senate out Thursday and Friday, this shortened week will be key for sending the bill to Trump\u2019s desk by July 4. The Senate parliamentarian will have bipartisan discussions with committees, and staffers anticipate she will start issuing rulings now that nearly every committee has released text. <\/p>\n

A few other megabill developments:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Trump and Rand Paul talk it out: <\/b>Paul told NBC News<\/a> that the two spoke Saturday, after Trump spent weeks attacking the Kentucky Republican for signaling he\u2019d vote against the bill. Paul, who has objected to the bill\u2019s debt ceiling increase, said he told Trump he\u2019s \u201cnot an absolute no\u201d and that the two are \u201ctrying to get to a better place in our conversations.\u201d But he also indicated that Republicans are spending little energy in really trying to win him over.<\/p>\n

\u2014 What Mark Meadows is doing behind the scenes: <\/b>The former House Freedom Caucus chair and one-time Trump chief of staff is operating as a sounding board for conservatives<\/a> as they try to hang onto some of their biggest priorities in the megabill. Meadows huddled with House and Senate hard-liners last week, and is in regular contact with House Freedom Caucus members.<\/p>\n

\u201cMark is trying to help get a deal done,\u201d Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) says.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019re watching:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

\u2014 Where the megabill Medicaid negotiations end up: <\/b>Senate GOP leaders are getting some outside help as they try to find a landing spot on the megabill\u2019s Medicaid revamp and the provider tax, which several states use to help fund their Medicaid programs. Hospital associations from 13 states sent a letter to Thune and Crapo<\/a>, a copy of which was obtained by Blue Light News, urging them to \u201cmove forward with the carefully negotiated Medicaid provider tax-related and Medicaid directed payment program provisions in the House-passed budget reconciliation bill.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Senator security briefing: <\/b>Senators will receive a classified security briefing<\/a> Tuesday morning from the chamber\u2019s sergeant at arms and the Capitol Police after a Saturday shooting killed and injured Minnesota state lawmakers and their spouses. The internal announcement Sunday from Majority Leader Thune about the bipartisan briefing came after GOP senators and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer requested one.<\/p>\n

Mia McCarthy and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senate Finance is expected to reveal at least some of its tweaks to the House-passed \u201cbig, beautiful bill\u201d Monday, but the panel\u2019s text will likely include placeholders for key Medicaid and tax provisions as negotiations continue. Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) will brief Senate Republicans on his proposals around 6 p.m., three people granted anonymity to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}