Senate Votes in Favor of GOP Tax Reform Bill 51-49
The Senate has tonight voted in favor of the Republican tax reform bill, following a last-minute rush on getting the votes and fixing up the text of the bill. The vote was 51-49 in favor of Republicans.
Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) was the sole Republican to vote against the bill, joining all 48 Senate Democrats.
Republicans expressed excitement for making major legislative progress.
BREAKING → The #Senate has passed this once-in-a-generation #TaxReform bill. pic.twitter.com/VAF7BtiMlN
— Leader McConnell (@SenateMajLdr) December 2, 2017
BREAKING: Senate passes historic pro-growth, pro-family #taxreform https://t.co/rcr26HJLyT pic.twitter.com/afape9VNSN
— GOP Senate Finance (@GOPSenFinance) December 2, 2017
Today, we are one step closer to starting the New Year off with a tax code that the American people both need and deserve. American families will get a better deal under #TaxReform. #SmallBiz owners will have an easier time expanding and creating jobs. This is much needed reform!
— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) December 2, 2017
While I still would have preferred larger cuts, this bill provides a foundation on which to continue building. Today marks a victory for giving the American people back more of their own money and reforming an archaic tax code. https://t.co/nEgDcynrdb
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) December 2, 2017
For the first time since 1986, both the House and Senate have passed a major overhaul of our tax code. I look forward to a conference committee so we can get a final bill to the president’s desk. https://t.co/R0NtX8wJj4 pic.twitter.com/8U2Hkeumst
— Paul Ryan (@SpeakerRyan) December 2, 2017
Democrats took to Twitter earlier in the evening to express frustrations with the process. Senators like Jon Tester and Elizabeth Warren posted to Twitter about hand-written notes in the margins of the bill and saying they aren’t being given enough time to read it:
I was just handed a 479-page tax bill a few hours before the vote. One page literally has hand scribbled policy changes on it that can’t be read. This is Washington, D.C. at its worst. Montanans deserve so much better. pic.twitter.com/q6lTpXoXS0
— Senator Jon Tester (@SenatorTester) December 2, 2017
New version. pic.twitter.com/BZfc8dm216
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) December 2, 2017
This is how we’re writing legislation now? pic.twitter.com/kfy7yghtJA
— Mark Warner (@MarkWarner) December 2, 2017
No, I haven’t had time to read the 500-page #GOPTaxScam bill that we’re voting on tonight. I couldn’t read it if I tried – and I did. pic.twitter.com/WgoAT6rxuo
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 2, 2017
The Daily Beast reporter Andrew Desiderio received this statement from one Republican senator on the changes:
FWIW, @SenatorLankford tells me the handwritten parts were done for the sake of speed:
“It’s a non-story. Obviously the staff is still making edits. They’ll be printed out. But they were saying, hey, we want to get it faster. They were trying to actually get it to them faster.” pic.twitter.com/nylYnZC0gj
— Andrew Desiderio (@desiderioDC) December 2, 2017
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer railed against the bill and the Republicans on the Senate floor:
SCHUMER: “Historians will mark today as one of the darkest black letter days in the long history of this senate.”
— Alan Rappeport (@arappeport) December 2, 2017
Schumer now on the floor ripping the tax bill. Talks about its “stench. Says “not a single member of this chamber has read this bill..text has been replaced by handwritten notes.”
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) December 2, 2017
[image via screengrab]
