US Senate push to pass Trumps $3.3 trillion bill extends into second day

US Senate Republicans were still trying to pass President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill early on Tuesday morning, despite divisions within the party about its expected $3.3 trillion hit to the nation’s debt pile.Senators voted in a marathon session known as a “vote-a-rama,” featuring a series of amendments by Republicans and the minority Democrats, part of the arcane process Republicans are using to bypass Senate rules that normally require 60 of the chamber’s 100 members to agree on legislation.Beginning early on Monday and running for roughly 18 hours, it was still unclear how long the voting would last.Lawmakers said the process had been held up partly by the need to determine whether amendments complied with special budgetary rules.Shortly after midnight, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters the vote-a-rama was “hopefully on the home stretch and then we’ll see where the votes are.” But hours later, there was no sign of the lawmakers moving to a vote on passage.Republicans can afford to lose no more than three votes in either chamber to pass a bill the Democrats are united in opposition to.The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its assessment on Sunday of the bill’s hit to the $36.2 trillion US debt pile.

The Senate version is estimated to cost $3.3 trillion, $800 billion more than the version passed last month in the House of Representatives.Many Republicans dispute that claim, contending that extending existing policy will not add to the debt.Nonetheless, international bond investors see incentives to diversify out of the US Treasury market.Democrats, meanwhile, hope the latest, eye-widening figure could stoke enough anxiety among fiscally minded conservatives to get them to buck their party, which controls both chambers of Congress.“This bill, as we have said for months, steals people’s healthcare, jacks up their electricity bill to pay for tax breaks for billionaires,” Democratic S...