It’s the first major decision Senate Republican leaders have to make as they gear up to pass President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” — whether to hold committee markups.
The Senate is planning to rewrite portions of the tax, spending cut and border security package that passed the House just before recess. But a lot of that work is likely to occur out of public view, especially the so-called “Byrd Bath.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told us last week that committee markups were still an open question.
Thune said he believes markups can “improve the product” and allow the Senate to put its “imprint” on the bill.
But “regular order,” as Thune called it, only really matters for GOP leaders if it moves any wavering Republican senators closer to backing the bill. It’s not clear at the moment whether it would.
Some senators believe a Finance Committee markup could help tame Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and other fiscal hawks who are demanding additional spending cuts.
Markup detractors: Others believe markups would be a fool’s errand and that they’d come with significant drawbacks:
1) A markup gives Democrats an opportunity to make an already-painful process even more so. They can force Republicans to vote on politically uncomfortable amendments. Markups would give Democrats a forum to rail against the bill.
2) Senate Republicans are trying to get the reconciliation bill to Trump’s desk by July 4, an extremely fast timeline considering the vast scale of the legislation they’re drafting. They also need to wrap things up by the August recess at the latest to meet the debt-limit deadline.
Senators and aides already have legislative language and the “Byrd Bath” to deal with.
3) If any GOP senator’s support seems squishy, the math gets dicey for GOP leaders. For example, Johnson sits on the Finance Committee, which is responsible for taxes and Medicaid cuts. It would take only one Republican voting “no” to block the bill in that committee.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said this week it’s “crazy” to do a markup because “it’s a shirts-and-skins game all the way.”
“Why would we subject ourselves to a whole bunch of amendments from Democrats when the Republican members in various committees certainly have all the opportunity… to have their say without needing to go through the brain damage of an official markup,” Cramer added.
