The domestic policy megabill being considered by the Senate today includes a massive amount of funding for President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, allocating tens of billions of dollars toward border barriers and detention facilities and increasing the costs associated with legal immigration.

The Senate version of the bill allocates $46.5 billion toward the construction, installation and maintenance of border barriers and $45 billion toward facilities that detain immigrants over the next four years. That would make Immigration and Customs Enforcement the highest-funded federal law enforcement agency and far surpass its previous budgets.

It would be a crucial infusion of cash for the administration to accomplish its goal of arresting at least 3,000 immigrants per day. White House border czar Tom Homan previously told CNN the administration is almost maxed out on detention space, saying earlier this month, “We’re probably 95% or above.”

Trump on Tuesday is scheduled to visit Florida to tour the site where the stateis building a new facility — which it refers to as “Alligator Alcatraz” — to help achieve that goal. The center will have a capacity of about 5,000 beds, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday.

The Senate bill would also include $29.8 billion to hire, train and retain ICE personnel. About 7,000 people at ICE are focused on removal operations, and the White House says it hopes to hire an additional 10,000.

The bill would also increase or add new fees associated with applying for nonimmigrant visas, asylum status and work permits — a move that, immigrant advocates say, would keep relief out of reach for many immigrants in the country.

CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report.

The first vote taken by senators today dealt with a procedural argument over the so-called current policy baseline and how to calculate the costs of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”

While it may seem dry, Republicans’ use of current policy baseline in their calculations will set a precedent allowing both parties to be much more generous when calculating costs of tax bills going forward.

Trump and some GOP leaders, including Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo, pushed the alternative “current policy baseline” scoring method, which appears to greatly minimizes the deficit impact of the bill because it would not include the cost of extending the expiring 2017 tax provisions.

The Congressional Budget Office, however, calculated the cost of the bill using its traditional scoring method, known as “current law baseline,” which assumed the expiring provisions of the 2017 Trump tax cuts lapse as scheduled at the end of the year.

It projected the Senate’s bill would also cost far more than the House-approved bill, adding nearly $3.3 trillion to the deficit over a decade.

The Senate version is costlier in large part because it contains bigger tax cuts, while shrinking some of the spending cuts and revenue raisers, said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a watchdog group.

For instance, the Senate bill would make permanent three corporate tax breaks that were part of the 2017 law and would lessen the cuts to the food stamp program.

“They expand the giveaways and shrink the takeaways,” Goldwein told CNN.

Using the current policy baseline, the Senate version would cost roughly $508 billion over the next decade, according to a separate CBO estimate released Saturday night.

A number of Republicans are closely watching any changes made to Medicaid provisions in the President Donald Trump’s megabill.

The Senate version of the megabill would leave 11.8 million more people without health insurance in 2034, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released over the weekend. That’s more than the 10.9 million more people projected to be left uninsured by the House-passed version of the bill.

Both chambers are calling for historic spending cuts to Medicaid, which provides coverage to more than 71 million low-income Americans, including children, senior citizens, people with disabilities and other adults. The package would also enact changes to the Affordable Care Act that are projected to reduce enrollment in the landmark health reform law that Trump and Republicans have long sought to dismantle.

But the Senate version calls for even deeper cuts to the Medicaid, leading to the larger estimate. These are some of the key differences in the Senate’s bill:

Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski has crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats on several amendments affecting key provisions in President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill as a marathon vote series on the package gets underway in earnest in the Senate.

Changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid have been major flashpoints within the Republican Party throughout the writing of this bill, and Senate Democrats are zeroing in on these pressure points in the “vote-a-rama,” forcing their GOP colleagues to declare positions on the record.

Murkowski, who GOP leadership had to work hard to convince to advance the bill over the weekend, has voted for Democratic amendments on the bill’s changes to SNAP and Medicaid, and to shore up support for rural hospitals.

So far, Maine Sen. Susan Collins has also broke with Republicans on two votes aimed at protecting rural hospitals.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said GOP Sen. Thom Tillis’ assertion that President Donald Trump’s policy bill betrays his promise to protect Medicaid is “just wrong.”

Tillis has railed against the bill’s effects on Medicaid in his state of North Carolina. He announced Sunday that he would not seek reelection, a day after Trump publicly threatened to support a primary challenger against the GOP senator.

As CNN previously reported, the Senate version of the bill would leave 11.8 million more people without health insurance in 2034, according to a nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office analysis released over the weekend.

Leavitt also shot down concerns from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers about rural hospitals closing, saying, “that claim is simply not true.”

Leavitt expressed confidence that the bill would be on Trump’s desk by the Fourth of July despite a delayed Senate vote that, if successful, will give limited time for the House to consider the amended legislation this week.

As the Senate continues its marathon voting session on amendments on President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill, CNN’s Daniel Dale has fact-checked the president’s claims about the legislation.

CNN's Daniel Dale fact-checks what Trump has said about his 'big, beautiful bill'

04:42 - Source: CNN

CNN's Daniel Dale fact-checks what Trump has said about his 'big, beautiful bill'

04:42

President Donald Trump is in touch with congressional leaders by phone, but there was no meeting at the White House earlier today with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, a White House official said.

Earlier today, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump was meeting with Thune and Johnson at the White House today to discuss Republicans’ efforts to pass his sweeping tax cuts and spending package. She added that she believed the sit-down had already occurred.

“The president is very well aware that this bill needs to not only pass out of the Senate, but it needs to go back to the House, and we need the full weight of the Republican conference to get behind this bill — and we expect them to, and we are confident that they will,” Leavitt said at a White House briefing.

“The president has been working hand-in-hand with Senate Majority Leader Thune and … Mike Johnson, both of whom will be at the White House today to meet with the president yet again. I believe they were here this morning,” she added.

A spokesperson for Thune later said the GOP leader did not meet with the White House this morning, despite Leavitt suggesting otherwise.

This post has been updated with confirmation that Trump has been in touch with Thune and Johnson by phone.

Senators are offering varying perspectives as the chamber continues its’ voting session on amendments for President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” domestic policy bill.

Here’s what some are saying:

Senate Republicans revealed an entirely new tax for renewable energy this weekend, in the latest version of a bill that could be passed as early as this afternoon.

The bill already stripped tax incentives for renewables by 2027 and gave developers stringent requirements to claim them.

The new tax would come at the worst possible time for the American power grid, experts and trade groups say, as demand for more electricity spikes due to new data centers for artificial intelligence coming online.

“This new tax is just a killer to the wind and solar industry,” said Ed Mills, a Washington policy analyst at Raymond James. “You went from taking away a positive for the industry to implementing a negative.”

The tax could change, as the Senate embarks on a marathon day of amendment votes today.

As it’s currently written, the Senate bill will threaten to upend a huge amount of power that was set to come online in the next decade. Wind, solar and long-term storage batteries make up the vast majority of new electricity added to the grid over the past three years. It also encompasses about 85% of what’s currently in the development pipeline, according to Ben King, an analyst at the non-partisan think tank Rhodium Group.

The weekend changes to the bill were blasted by renewables trade groups, who had been pushing lawmakers for a more generous tax credit phaseout timeline for wind and solar projects.

Two of President Donald Trump’s top economic officials said today that trade deals are coming soon.

But one of them said the administration is more focused on passing the president’s signature tax and spending legislation, known as the “big, beautiful bill.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview with Bloomberg that there will likely be a “flurry of trade deals” in the week leading up to July 9, the deadline Trump set for countries to negotiate trade agreements with the administration. Trump delayed the massive tariff hikes he unveiled for dozens of countries in early April until then to allow for negotiations. So far, the administration has had successful trade talks with only two nations: the United Kingdom and China.

Bessent said it’s possible that some of those stiff tariffs are reinstated if trade talks are not progressing.

Kevin Hassett, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, similarly said in an interview with CNBC that by July 9 there will be “a whole number of deals, double-digit deals.” But he suggested the administration is prioritizing Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill. After a weekend of negotiations, the Senate is holding a marathon voting session on Trump’s megabill.

President Donald Trump’s push to pass his sweeping agenda in the Senate faces uncertainty as GOP leaders barrel toward a critical vote.

Over the weekend, a warning shot came from of North Carolina, who was one of two senators to oppose advancing Trump’s bill in a key vote Saturday night, along with Kentucky . Tillis, who was concerned over cuts to Medicaid, announced the following day that he would not seek reelection. And in a fiery floor speech, he said he would withhold his vote “until it’s demonstrated to me that we’ve done our homework.”

Already, outspoken fiscal hawkPaul said Sunday he is planning to vote against the bill. “The bill increases the debt ceiling by $5 trillion,” the Kentucky senator said. “What does that mean? That is an admission that they know they aren’t controlling the deficit. … That doesn’t sound conservative to me, and that’s why I’m a no.”

And Tillis is not the only Republican who opposes proposed cuts to Medicaid. and have raised concerns, with Collins saying, “If the bill is not further changed, I would be leaning against the bill.”

Collins, a key centrist vote, said Saturday she would vote in favor of the bill in the initial procedural vote, but was clear her support for the initial vote did not determine whether she would back the final version.

— who had raised concerns about the package’s Medicaid provisions, which he feared would shutter rural hospitals — said Saturday he would back the bill in a major win for party leaders.

Ahead of Saturday’s procedural vote, Vice President JD Vance traveled to the Capitol to help Senate Majority Leader John Thune convince remaining holdouts to allow debate on the bill. The vice president could be needed again, acting in his capacity as president of the Senate, to break any tie on a final passage vote.

Thune and Vance huddled in the leadership suite with and ahead of Saturday’s vote, before all four eventually voted to advance the measure. These senators will all be ones to watch.

This morning, senators kicked off a marathon voting process known as a “vote-a-rama” — which means any senator can offer any amendment to the president’s sweeping agenda bill for as many hours as he or she wants.

The amendment process is expected to take hours. Once concluded, the Senate will move to a final passage vote on the bill. Republicans will look to pass the bill with a simple-majority threshold, or without Democratic votes.

The bill would then move to the House, which would have to pass it without changes in order to send it directly to the president’s desk for his signature.

President Donald Trump has said he wants to sign the bill by the Fourth of July.

The Senate parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough, who is the chamber’s rules referee, struck down a number of key provisions in the bill, saying they didn’t meet the chamber’s strict budget rules. That sent GOP lawmakers scrambling to retool pieces of the package to pass muster with the parliamentarian — and the conference.

Leaving a closed-door lunch, GOP senators said they believed the Senate would begin voting on the president’s megabill — even as the final text was still being drafted and major disputes remained.

Senators narrowly voted 51-49 to open debate on the bill, and Senate Democrats forced a full reading of the bill.

Clerks continued to read the more than 900-page bill on the Senate floor, averaging about a page a minute.

Senate clerks finished reading the domestic policy bill and formal floor debate began.

The debate on the bill lasted hours and concluded in the early morning hours Monday. The Senate GOP whip informed senators they would need to return in the morning for a “vote-a-rama.”

Vote-a-rama” kicked off in the Senate.

As Republicans race to pass President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” through Congress ahead of his July 4 deadline, people across the US have started weighing in on opinion polls about the sweeping legislation.

CNN’s Harry Enten takes a look at the numbers:

Harry Enten breaks down how Americans feel about Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

02:46 - Source: CNN

Harry Enten breaks down how Americans feel about Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

02:46

After a weekend of negotiations and delays, the Senate has kicked off its marathon voting session on President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill.

As he went to the floor this morning, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, “Hopefully we’ll know soon enough” if they have the votes to pass the bill.

Pressed on whether he thought Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski may vote against final passage of the package, now that key provisions for Alaska were stripped from the bill by the parliamentarian, he told CNN: “We’re working” on that.

The first vote in the series is not an amendment, which will follow. Instead, it is over a procedural argument about how to calculate the costs of the bill. While this may seem dry, Republicans’ use of current policy baseline in their calculations will set a precedent allowing both parties to be much more generous when calculating costs of tax bills going forward.

The “vote-a-rama,” as the marathon session is called, is an exercise in stamina, and a chance for Democrats to force as many votes as they please on politically difficult issues for Republicans, as well as for Republicans to force changes to the bill.

“Senate Democrats will put one amendment after another, again and again and again, to our Republicans on the record,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer declared on the floor ahead of the marathon vote series.

President Donald Trump said his administration is working on a temporary pass to be issued for immigrants working on farms and in the hospitality industry, allowing employers greater control.

“I’m on both sides of the thing. I’m the strongest immigration guy that there’s ever been, but I’m also the strongest farmer guy that there’s ever been,” Trump said, adding that he was including, “hotels and, you know, places where people work,” in an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

“The farmer knows. He’s not going to hire a murderer,” Trump said, and noting that by not allowing exemptions could “end up destroying a farmer because you took all the people away. It’s a problem.”

Trump said earlier in June that farmers and those in the hotel and hospitality industries had told him the administration’s immigration policy “is taking very good, long-time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” in a Truth Social post. “We must protect our Farmers but get the CRIMINALS OUT OF THE USA. Changes are coming!” Trump added in the social media post.

CNN has contacted the White House for additional details about the proposed temporary pass.

North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis slammed President Donald Trump and his sweeping agenda bill, saying the president is breaking his promise by making cuts to Medicaid.

“What do I tell 663,000 people in two years or three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid because the funding’s not there anymore guys?” Tillis asked during his remarks on the Senate floor.

Tillis announced Sunday he is not seeking reelection next year, a day after he was one of only two Republicans who voted against advancing Trump’s sweeping agenda bill.

The Senate version of President Donald Trump’s agenda bill would leave 11.8 million more people without health insurance in 2034, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Sunday.

That’s more than the 10.9 million more people projected to be left uninsured by the House-passed version of the bill.

Both chambers are calling for historic spending cuts to Medicaid, which provides coverage to more than 71 million low-income Americans, including children, senior citizens, people with disabilities and other adults. The package would also enact changes to the Affordable Care Act that are projected to reduce enrollment in the landmark health reform law that Trump and Republicans have long sought to dismantle.

But the Senate version calls for even deeper cuts to the Medicaid, leading to the larger estimate.

It would slash federal support for Medicaid by $930 billion over a decade, Sen. Ron Wyden, the ranking member on Senate Finance Committee, said yesterday, citing a CBO estimate. The House version is projected to reduce federal spending on the program by about $800 billion, according to CBO.

Both chambers would require certain able-bodied adults ages 19-64 to work to maintain their Medicaid benefits for the first time in the program’s 60-year history. But the Senate version would impose the work requirement on parents of children ages 14 and older, while the House version would exempt parents of dependent children.

The Senate version would also lower the cap on the taxes that states levy on providers to help fund the program and increase reimbursement rates for providers. However, that provision would only apply to the 40 states and the District of Columbia that have expanded Medicaid to low-income adults. The House bill would put a moratorium on the states’ existing provider taxes.

President Donald Trump has the chance to accelerate his political momentum and tighten his power grip on the country by driving his most significant piece of second-term legislation through Congress and taking a July Fourth victory lap.

The measure, dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” with the president’s trademark provocative hyperbole, is Trump’s attempt to engineer lasting change through legislation in an administration that is also wielding huge and questionable executive power.

It is significant for its own sake, both ideologically and symbolically. And its blend of vast tax cuts and reductions in social safety-net spending will have far-reaching political impacts for the country, Trump’s legacy and the GOP.

It codifies some of Trump’s key goals — from financing his deportation crackdown to slashing green energy projects. The legislation, which offers new benefits to working Americans but more strikingly rewards the rich, is a snapshot of the transformation and contradictions of the modern Republican Party.

But the bill is also part of the wider story of Trump’s second term. Days after he bombed Iran; stopped it and Israel firing missiles at each other; and celebrated a Supreme Court ruling that will facilitate his aggressive claims of executive authority, passing the bill would exemplify the growing power of a president dominating and disrupting this era in the US and abroad.

The Senate’s marathon voting session — known as a “vote-a-rama” — that will take place before a final vote on President Donald Trump’s sweeping agenda bill is now expected to begin at 9 a.m. ET on Monday, according to a notice sent out by Senate GOP Whip John Barrasso’s office.

During the marathon voting session, senators can offer as many amendments as they want to vote on before a final vote on the bill.

Senators were originally expected to begin the “vote-a-rama” overnight.

Democrats and some Republicans are raising alarm about the impact of changes to Medicaid in President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which GOP leaders worked through the weekend to advance in the Senate.

Here’s what to know about this sticking point for some Republicans:

How it would impact Americans: The Senate version of Trump’s agenda bill would leave 11.8 million more people without health insurance in 2034, according to analysis the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released yesterday.

That’s more than the 10.9 million more people projected to be left uninsured by the House-passed version of the bill.

Both chambers are calling for historic spending cuts to Medicaid, which provides coverage to more than 71 million low-income Americans. The package would also enact changes to the Affordable Care Act that are projected to reduce enrollment in the landmark health reform law.

But the Senate version calls for even deeper cuts to the Medicaid, leading to the larger estimate.

It’s emerged as a key issue for holdouts: Only two Republicans voted against advancing Trump’s bill in a key procedural vote late Saturday. One of them — Sen. Thom Tillis, who announced yesterday that he will not run for reelection next year — has specifically voiced concerns about the impact Medicaid cuts would have on his constituents.

Other GOP lawmakers who are pursuing changes to the bill before a final vote, including Sen. Susan Collins, have also signaled hesitance about changes to the program.

Trump allies push back: Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a top Senate negotiator for the president’s bill, dismissed Tillis’ criticism in an interview yesterday.

The bill will cut “waste, fraud and abuse” from Medicaid, Mullin said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He argued that too many people above the poverty line are receiving benefits, and the bill would only eliminate those who “should never be there” in the first place.

GOP Sen. Jim Banks also defended the bill in an interview Sunday morning, telling Fox News that the cuts would only affect “able-bodied Americans” who “shouldn’t receive Medicaid without working.”