REED COWAN:
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Our crews and cameras also in Washington, where we wait for White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt to speak about all things President Donald Trump and what he wants to advance his agenda. She goes into a Monday as the Senate starts their marathon session on President Trump's so-named One Big, Beautiful Bill. He needs that bill to pay for the promises he made on the campaign trail. Critics say the budget deficit over the next decade is astronomical, with major impacts to you at home. So here's where we are at this hour on the bill. The president wants to sign it July 4. So there's a ticking clock, some tension there, right? All but two Senate Republicans voted in favor of passing the bill. Democrats working against Republicans. In fact, Senate clerks completed a nearly 16-hour marathon readout of every word of that 940-page bill yesterday. They say they did it so that the American people can see what is really in it. Now, if the bill makes it out of the Senate, it will then head back to the House for final approval before getting President Trump's signature. So let's talk about what's in the bill and how it affects you. Some of the more controversial pieces of that legislation include restrictions to Medicaid, raising the debt limit by $5 trillion, limits on overtime and tip deductions-- campaign promises-- boosts to defense spending, and yet another campaign promise, funding boosts for immigration enforcement. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer addressed the chamber before that voting started. Here's their perspective. With every rewrite, Senate Republicans have made their bill more extreme, pro-billionaire, and more hostile to people's health care and livelihood. Why do they do that? There's a small group on that side of the aisle, MAGA hard-right-wingers who are dictating what's happened. And all the rest of the senators on the Republican side who know it's wrong go along. A small group-- they don't represent more than 10% of the American people. But they're dictating what this body does, A, because of the rules we have-- a simple majority-- but B, because our colleagues on the Republican side lack the courage of their convictions to do the right thing for the American people. It's outrageous. And Republicans fundamentally believe that it's better if you allow the American people to keep their own money, that you distribute power out of Washington, DC, back to state and local governments, who are closer to the people and can make better decisions that are more informed by what's actually happened in their individual states. And so when we use reconciliation to keep taxes low-- and by the way, that's all we are doing here is extending current tax policy. We are preventing a over $4 trillion tax increase on the American people. And when you vote against us, that's what you'll be voting for. All right, so CBS News White House reporter Aaron Navarro, he's watching for presidential reaction to the voting. But we first start with CBS News Congressional Correspondent and all out smarty-pants Caitlin Huey-Burns on Capitol Hill. Caitlin, good to talk to you, my friend. They're calling this the vote-a-rama. That sounds like something that you would entitle maybe something to eat. But it is serious. What does a vote-a-rama mean there for the GOP and the Senate? Well, Reed, first of all, I'm going to put smarty-pants in my bio. So thank you very much.
REED COWAN:
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LinkedIn. I think you're the only one that has ever said that about me. So thank you for that. Quoting you there. And as it pertains to vote-a-rama, this is one of those kind of nerdy Senate terms. But basically, here's what it is. It's the idea that any senator can bring up any Amendment in this budget procedure. This can only apply to budgetary items. And they can go for as many amendments and forever-- however long that they want. Back in 2008, there was a record set of 44 amendments. So if you're trying to do the quick math at home, each vote on an amendment is about 15 minutes long. And if they go up to or past 44 amendments, that is taking us way into the early hours of the morning tomorrow, most likely. So here's what they're basically trying to do. You have lots of senators who are putting forward amendments that are basically messaging bills to try to either put forward an issue that they care about or to try to get the other side on record on certain provisions. And then you do have efforts to change or modify what's in this bill. And it's unclear at this point what actually has the votes to move forward. For example, there's a provision-- an amendment being proposed by Florida Senator Rick Scott to scale back the way in which the federal government shares costs with states as it pertains to Medicaid. So we're kind of keeping an eye on those to see if they pass here. But basically, this is a chance to either get your colleagues on record or get changes put into this bill. And we are likely to go into the wee hours of the morning tomorrow. Caitlin, I think you just gave birth to a new Instagram or TikTok series, "Nerdy Senate Terms." 30-second reel. I'm manifesting it for you. I will take notes when you do it. "Nerdy Senate Terms." OK, so I want to ask you about this. The Congressional Budget Office, they've made headlines for weeks, really, because they took that closer look at the impact of the bill. I can joke all day long about these nerdy concepts and this insider baseball talk that we always have. But there's some real-life impact, according to that Budget Office, to Americans. Yeah, and just to remind people, this is the Congressional Budget Office. This is a nonpartisan, essentially assessment of what this bill actually does. They do these kinds of assessments for all these kinds of bills that pertain to the budget. And what they found is that it adds $3 trillion to the deficit. So they're basically pointing out that the government is going to be spending a lot more money than it is taking in in revenue. And that's something that has concerned conservatives in the past, and some of those conservative holdouts here. And it's something that Democrats are really highlighting in this bill. So we'll see whether that is the major deterrent for some of these holdouts. That remains to be seen. The other item that it found was about 11 million people would be kicked off of their health coverage. And this is because they are anticipating these new changes that they've made to Medicaid. They're cutting about $800 billion to the program, but also installing new work requirements for some people to be able to get that Medicaid coverage. This is altogether suggesting, according to this scoring, that those people will lose their health insurance. Now, Republicans argue here, when it comes to some of these numbers, that it's not taking into account the amount of economic growth that will come from people, in their view, having more money in their pockets because of these tax cuts that they are extending, and more businesses having more tax relief as well. So whether and how that gets passed on to the consumer, we shall see. But that is their argument, at least for now, that it doesn't take into effect that kind of growth that they are anticipating at this point. All right. So we know there's a ticking clock. The president would like to have it all finished, wrapped up on his desk by July 4. If this bill were volleyball, we saw the bump in the House, the set in the Senate. What will be the spike to get it back over to the House now? Well, as most people know, because they've been making plans, July 4 is on Friday, so very little time to get this to the president's desk. The Senate is expected to pass this tomorrow. It then has to go back to the House for approval. And Reed, you and I had many conversations over these past few months about how difficult it was just to get this through the House in the first place. The Senate's made a lot of changes here. So we have to wait and see whether those changes essentially have more members back away from this bill. You've already had House members voicing concerns. So that's the big question here. But I will say that Speaker Johnson over on the House side always tells us to-- he is often underestimated, and he always delivers for this president. So we shall see. But still many steps to go before this has any shot of landing on the president's desk for his signature. Well, a tribute to your civics and government teachers. You've got us all covered, a masterclass at that. Caitlin Huey-Burns, always a joy to talk to you. Happy Monday, my friend. Right back at you. OK, so CBS News White House Reporter Aaron Navarro joins me now from Washington for more. Aaron, the White House is sort of like the catcher's mitt. And they're hoping to catch the ball by July 4. What is it going to take to get this out and to the president's desk? You're watching it from that angle. Yeah. Reed, good to be with you. It's interesting watching how President Trump has talked about this bill in interviews over the past week. Yes, today, we're hearing from White House officials that they're optimistic it will pass the Senate today, potentially late tonight, midnight going into tomorrow, and then will go through the House. They're voicing confidence. But we're also seeing the president show two windows, one window that is saying, quote, whatever it is, as long as we have it, it's very important, when asked about that July 4 deadline. So it signals to me that the president does not really mind, should this take a couple more days in Congress to get to his desk. I think the reality is that this window right now is the best political chance for President Trump to get a bill of this size passed during his term, especially considering that in the midterms, the chamber could change political parties. And the president also had an interesting post regarding this bill over the weekend, where he said, quote, "For all cost-cutting Republicans, remember, you still have to get reelected." You've seen a lot of backlash when it comes to the Medicaid provisions in this bill. You've seen the Democrats say that they are going to hit Republicans on that going into the midterms. This is President Trump acknowledging the potential political blowback from passing this bill. All right. So while the president anticipates getting that bill on his desk, domestic issues are at the forefront. But he's also working on some international global issues, a changing landscape there in the Middle East. He's expected to signed an executive order today easing sanctions on Syria-- a changing, evolving Syria, at that. What really precipitated this decision? Well, it was the regime change after the civil war, in particular the removal of Syrian President, or former president, Bashar al-Assad, that signaled to the US that they might be able to have relations with Syria in a way. And he showed that during his trip to the Middle East in May, where he announced that he would be removing some of these sanctions as part of a good gesture to some of the leaders he was meeting, such as the Saudi Crown Prince, the Emir of Qatar. You saw the Treasury Department take steps to remove some of those sanctions shortly after. But this seems to be the next formal step. But another motive from the president that we've heard from him, heard from the White House Press Secretary, is that he is looking to get Syria to join the Abraham Accords and enter a peace agreement of sorts with Israel. Trump made that request when he met with Syria's president during his trip to the Middle East in May. And the Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said last week that it is still a goal of President Trump to get Syria to join those accords. Aaron, I've got to ask you. I was just on the campus of Harvard University. I talked to several professors and several students about the back and forth between the Trump administration and Harvard. The Trump administration has sent a letter to Harvard University notifying them of their office of civil rights and their findings. The allegation is that Harvard violated the Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. What are you learning? What's the response from Harvard University today? Yeah. That letter alleges that they violated the Civil Rights Act. They allege that there has been anti-Semitism on Harvard's campus, said it quote, might be in, quote, "violent violation of the Civil Rights Act." And they warned that should Harvard not make changes immediately, that it could lead to a loss of financial resources from the federal government to Harvard. We've already seen this administration kind of threaten that type of action towards Harvard before. This seems to be the latest step. In response, Harvard says it has, quote, "made significant strides to combat bigotry, hate, and bias," says that they shared its own anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli bias report, but said that they, quote, "strongly disagree with the government's findings."
