GOP Sen. Thom Tillis was again on Capitol Hill on Monday as Senate Republicans struggled to move their “One Massive Stunning Invoice Act” he opposes — earlier than President Donald Trump‘s July Fourth deadline.
“I’ll search for a chance to talk once more,” Tillis mentioned throughout his fiery remarks on the Senate flooring on Sunday night time, through which he urged his Republican colleagues to rethink their help for the GOP tax invoice, which he mentioned “breaks” President Donald Trump’s guarantees to guard Medicaid.
However on Monday it remained unclear whether or not any of his fellow Republicans would go alongside.
Sen. Thom Tillis takes the elevator on the U.S. Capitol Constructing, June 30, 2025 in Washington.
Alex Wong/Getty Photos
Monday morning, as lawmakers started one other lengthy day of debate, Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer lauded Tillis for his remarks calling out the GOP megabill’s provisions he mentioned would slash Medicaid in his residence state of North Carolina.
“I salute my colleague from North Carolina. All of us heard what our colleague from North Carolina needed to say yesterday about this invoice. My guess is about half — perhaps greater than half of the Republicans within the Senate agree with him. However he had the braveness to talk the reality,” Schumer on Monday morning, as a vote-a-rama on the invoice started.
“He mentioned it himself: the invoice devastates his state however make no mistake about it, it should devastate the states of just about each Republican right here,” Schumer added.
Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer arrives as Republicans start a remaining push to advance President Donald Trump’s tax breaks and spending cuts package deal, on the Capitol in Washington, June 30, 2025.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
However how Tillis will navigate the remainder of his time period within the Senate — and maybe the remainder of the reconciliation invoice’s consideration — stays to be seen — after he abruptly introduced he would not run for reelection when Trump threatened to help a GOP main challenger.
Whereas his speech railing towards the measure’s Medicaid cuts displayed a number of the “pure freedom” he famous in his retirement announcement “to name the balls and strikes as I see match,” Tillis additionally advised reporters on the Capitol on Sunday that he would by no means do something to “undermine” or “shock” the Senate Republican Convention.
Sen. Thom Tillis speaks on the ground of the Senate, June 29, 2025, in Washington.
Senate TV
“Look, this is the factor, I used to be a pacesetter. I am by no means going to do something to undermine my convention, and I am by no means going to shock my convention,” Tillis mentioned..
“I let Senator Thune final night time know that I meant to do that at this time. I am not that sort of man. I imply, if you happen to’ve acquired a shock or jam your convention to get one thing executed, you are a fairly shitty legislator, and that is simply not my model,” he went on.
“So, I will stand behind John and the management and do every part I can to make them profitable,” Tillis mentioned.
In his speech to “clarify” his vote Saturday towards the movement to maneuver ahead on the “One Massive Stunning Invoice Act,” he condemned the laws.
“What do I inform 663,000 folks in two years, three years, when President Trump breaks his promise by pushing them off of Medicaid as a result of the funding is just not there anymore, guys?” Tillis requested at one level.
“The folks within the White Home advising the president, they don’t seem to be telling him that the impact of this invoice is to interrupt a promise.”
President Donald Trump arrives for the ‘one, huge, lovely occasion’ within the East Room of the White Home in Washington, June 26, 2025.
Ken Cedeno/EPA/Shutterstock
He mentioned blasted the president’s self-imposed July 4th deadline to move the laws as “synthetic.”
“I consider that we are able to be sure that we don’t break the promise of Donald J. Trump — that he is made to the folks on Medicaid at this time,” Tillis went on. “However what we’re doing as a result of we have got a view on a man-made deadline on July 4 which means nothing however one other date and time we might take the time to get this proper, if we lay down the home mark of the Medicaid invoice and repair it.”
“What’s fallacious with truly understanding what this invoice does?” he mentioned.
Tillis laid out how he’d executed the work of understanding the invoice over latest weeks, speaking with leaders in North Carolina and members of the Trump administration in regards to the impacts of the laws’s Medicaid provisions on his state.
He mentioned administration officers couldn’t disprove his findings that there could be a couple of $26 billion lower in Medicaid throughout North Carolina on account of the invoice.
Tillis mentioned he began his fact-finding course of by asking Republican workers within the North Carolina legislature, members of Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s crew and to the non-partisan Hospital Affiliation for his or her estimates about this invoice’s cuts to Medicaid in North Carolina.
“I requested three completely different impartial teams: a partisan Democrat group, a partisan Republican group of specialists, and a nonpartisan group of the Hospital Affiliation to develop an intact evaluation, impartial, not speaking, not sharing, reporting to me, and what I discovered is one of the best case state of affairs is a couple of $26 billion lower,” Tillis mentioned.
He mentioned when he introduced these findings to the Trump administration, they have been rejected.
“I had folks within the administration say, you are all moist, you do not know what you are doing,” he mentioned.
Tillis concluded by saying that the Senate “owes it to the American folks” to withhold development of the invoice ” till it is demonstrated to me that we have executed our homework.”
“We will be sure that we fulfill the promise After which we are able to really feel — I can really feel — good a couple of invoice that I am prepared to vote for, however till that point, I will probably be withholding my vote,” Tillis mentioned.
