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Shortly after the Senate voted to approve its version of the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Tennessee GOP Rep. Andy Ogles introduced an amendment to return the bill to its original House version that passed in late May.
Ogles made a series of criticisms about the Senate’s version of the bill after it passed Tuesday afternoon, including complaints about the bill forcing his constituents to pay for illegal aliens’ healthcare and not doing enough to halt taxpayer dollars from subsidizing green energy projects. Ogles also appeared to take issue with the Senate’s changes to the state and local tax (SALT) deduction, lamenting that the Senate “dramatically increased the amount Tennesseans are forced to subsidize state and local taxes for wealthy people in blue states.”
“The Senate CAVED to an unelected staffer appointed by a Democrat and rushed through an unfinished bill just so they could go home for July 4th,” Ogles said on X after the bill passed.
“I don’t work for the Senate parliamentarian. I work for the PEOPLE. That’s why I just filed an amendment to delete their dud and replace it with the strong House bill we passed weeks ago. The Senate’s version of the Big Beautiful Bill guts key Trump provisions — all at the behest of an unelected parliamentarian.”
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Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., talks with reporters after a meeting of the House Republican Conference in the Capitol building Nov. 7, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Ogles and other Republicans took issue Tuesday with the Senate parliamentarian’s rulings on whether aspects of the GOP spending package fall within the necessary guidelines to qualify for reconciliation’s simple majority passage threshold. One of those decisions included requiring a provision that excludes illegal immigrants from Medicaid eligibility to obtain a super majority, as opposed to the reconciliation’s simple majority.
“We have the majority in the Senate, we should be acting like it,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, posted on X Tuesday. “The truth is, there are multiple Senators happy to let the parliamentarian act as a foil to preserve the status quo. That’s not leadership, that’s service to the swamp.”
The Senate began its amendment process to the House’s version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Monday, and lawmakers put forth numerous amendments. After the Senate finished with its amendments, it voted Tuesday afternoon to advance the bill back to the House chamber for approval.
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The Big Beautiful Bill text being taken to the floor for Senate clerks to read Saturday. The bill text is about 940 pages. (Dan Scully/Fox News)
Ogles’ office did not respond to questions about whether his amendment to revert the Senate version back to the original House version also means he does not intend to vote in favor of the current Senate version.
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., has indicated he does not expect to vote for the Senate version and opposes advancing it. And Roy warned that the odds of passing the spending package before the July 4 deadline after the Senate altered the House’s version “are a hell of a lot lower than they were even 48 hours ago.”
Both Roy and Norman are on the powerful House Rules Committee, which must approve the Senate’s version for the bill to advance. Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Tuesday he does not believe the Rules Committee vote will pass right away.
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Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, walks up the House steps of the Capitol May 18, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“Then the speaker is going to have to decide how he gets this back into the House framework,” Harris said. “And whether that’s by scaling back some of the tax cuts that were added in the Senate, whether it’s by going after some of the Green New Scam that the president doesn’t like – we’ll get there eventually, but I don’t think it’s going to be in the next couple of days.”
Harris clarified he is also a “no” on the motion to proceed with the Senate’s version in its current state.
Fox News’ Elizabeth Elkind and Alex Miller contributed to this report.
