Cantwell Statement on Senate Passage of the GOP’s Devastating Budget Bill
Full final text of the disastrous bill wasn’t made available before final vote - the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office doesn’t even know the full cost to the American people; Cantwell was able to strip provision of bill that would have effectively banned states from enforcing AI consumer protection laws
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Just now, the United States Senate passed a budget bill 51 to 50 (with the Vice President repeatedly casting tie-breaking votes, on final passage of the bill and procedural votes). U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, issued the following statement:
“Over the past several days, my Republican colleagues made it very clear what their mission is – to make the largest cuts in the social safety net in U.S. history in order to give away tax breaks to major corporations and billionaires. No matter how loud the voices of our constituents, of our state and local leaders, and of our health care providers, they stuck to their script and adopted legislation that will slash about a trillion dollars from Medicaid and cut billions from SNAP,” Sen. Cantwell said.
“I voted against this bill that will strip health insurance from 17 million Americans. The bill that Republicans drafted in the dark of night will hit those that can least afford it the hardest. The lowest 20% of earners will lose an average of $700 a year, far more than they will get from the tax cuts.
“The House of Representatives should reject this disastrous legislation so Congress can come back later this month to craft a bipartisan fiscally responsible package that will support working families without adding $3 trillion to our unsustainable federal debt.”
The finalized text of the bill passed by the Senate this morning wasn’t ever shown to Senators before Republican leadership pushed forward with the final vote. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which is typically tasked with calculating the financial impact of any major piece of legislation, has not had time to give the bill a score. Prior to scheduling the vote, Senate Republicans refused to hold final meetings with the Senate Parliamentarian – tasked with ensuring that the language in bills follows certain rules and procedures that govern the Senate. Instead, the Parliamentarian had to make decisions on some provisions in a matter of minutes from the Senate floor.
Sunday night, Sen. Cantwell delivered a speech on the Senate floor to highlight how various provisions included in the 940-page document ultimately sell out the American people. That speech can be watched in full HERE; a transcript is HERE.
Hours before this morning’s final vote, shortly after 4 a.m., the Senate voted 99-1 in favor of an amendment co-sponsored by Sen. Cantwell and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R–TN) to strip a ten-year moratorium on state AI regulations from the Republican budget reconciliation bill. The Senate’s consideration of the bill, known as a votearama in the Senate, set records for the number of debate votes and the length of the debate, and the Senate stayed in session all night as Sen. Cantwell and her colleagues fought to improve the bill.
“The Senate came together tonight to say that we can't just run over good state consumer protection laws,” Sen. Cantwell said. “States can fight robocalls and deepfakes and provide safe autonomous vehicle laws. This also allows us to work together nationally to provide a new federal framework on Artificial Intelligence that accelerates U.S. leadership in AI while still protecting consumers.”
For weeks, Sen. Cantwell raised alarms over the provision which would have forced states to make an impossible choice between enforcing AI consumer protections or accepting federal BEAD funding to expand broadband access. Despite several revisions by its author and misleading assurances about its true impact, state officials from across the country, including 17 Republican Governors and 40 state Attorneys General, as well conservative and liberal organizations – from the Heritage Foundation to the Center for American Progress – rallied against the harmful proposal. On June 18, Sen. Cantwell hosted a virtual press conference alongside Sen. Blackburn to underscore the impacts to Americans across the country if Congress were to pass the moratorium on state AI legislation.
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