Each week while Congress is in session, our Policy team delivers a key update to highlight a topical benefits, health, or retirement news item from the Hill, such as a newly introduced bill, a summary of a committee hearing, or another hot-button matter.
Senate Republican leadership expects to finish the Senate’s work on the One Big Beautiful Bill (“BBB”) package by the end of the month. However, there still appear to be major disagreements within the Republican caucus over the size, scope, and contents of the bill that will have to be worked out.
Senate leadership spent much of last week working with members to address concerns with the House-passed bill. Those concerns were heightened for some members by Congressional Budget Office letters estimating that BBB will add $2.4 trillion to the debt and that up to 16 million people will lose health insurance coverage. The public feuding between President Trump and Elon Musk over BBB also generated considerable attention.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) indicated that the Senate may try to reduce the cost of the House-passed bill by, among other things, reducing the House-passed cap on the deduction for state and local taxes. The Senate is also reportedly considering options to reduce Medicare Advantage costs. The Senate also will likely seek to extend certain corporate tax provisions (e.g., immediate expensing of research and development expenses) for a longer period than the House bill or make them permanent. Importantly, it does not appear that Senate lawmakers are seriously considering changes to either the tax incentives for retirement savings or the exclusion for employer-sponsored health insurance.
Majority Leader Thune said he is aiming to hold a vote in the Senate the last week of June. Whatever the Senate passes will almost certainly be different from the House-passed version of BBB, so the two chambers will then have to resolve their differences. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has expressed reservations about some of the potential changes under consideration by the Senate.
