'May be hard to fit in': Ardent pro-Trump senator doubts 'one big beautiful bill' strategy
10 June
U.S. President Donald Trump makes a sports announcement at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 5, 2025. REUTERS/Leah Millis
Even one of President Donald Trump's biggest supporters in the U.S. Senate isn't sure the president cramming his entire agenda into "one big beautiful bill" is a smart play.
Semafor reported that Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) is now pushing for multiple tax and spending bills, arguing that it may be necessary to break up some elements of H.R. 1 ("The One Big Beautiful Bill Act") in order to get something to Trump's desk. Graham suggested splitting H.R. 1 into as many as three separate pieces of legislation that would be debated by the House and Senate.
"There’s some things that the president wants, like no tax on tips and overtime. All this may be hard to fit in completely. So let’s have as big a bill as the market will bear, but realize that more is coming," Graham told Semafor.
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"Let’s try to reach a compromise on this bill. And we got two more to do," he added.
Graham's suggestion to break up H.R. 1 hearkens back to a debate within Trumpworld earlier this year in which Vice President JD Vance, White house deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought all backed a multi-bill approach to pass Trump's domestic policy agenda, whereas House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) preferred one. However, Trump went with the House approach, using his Truth Social account to proclaim his desire for "one big, beautiful bill," which Republicans ended up pursuing while using the president's preferred name for the legislation.
According to Semafor, Graham's proposal to get the bill broken up into multiple pieces of legislation is likely a maneuver to appease senators like Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who have both called for additional spending cuts to offset the cost of extending Trump's 2017 tax cuts. That tax cut extension is projected to increase the federal deficit by trillions of dollars over the next decade.
“It just becomes: How much can you put into the bill before you lose the votes?” Graham said. “We’re not going to get the bill through the Senate without more spending cuts. I think if you do too much, you’re going to lose the House, so there will be round two.”
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Click here to read Semafor's full report.