Senate Republicans may be hours away from sending their tax cut, energy and border spending megabill to the House after a weekend of intense negotiations and acrimony.
The chamber is preparing to launch an amendment vote-a-rama before final passage as soon as Monday evening. They’re mostly Democratic messaging proposals but also potential GOP amendments to tweak the bill — including to change energy tax credit restrictions.
The GOP is looking to clear the megabill by simple majority through the budget reconciliation process, but disagreements over Medicaid cuts and taxes could complicate approval. The House is planning to return Wednesday to take up the bill, but conservatives there are grumbling the bill is too expensive.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said the legislation would deliver on GOP election promises: unleashing American energy, tax cuts and security.
“We made those promises, and the American people elected us to office. Now they expect us to deliver,” Thune said. “The opportunity is before us to deliver on our promises and make America safer, stronger and more prosperous.”
But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said President Donald Trump “has an irrational, infantile mania against clean energy” and blamed Republicans for following him.
Senate leaders released the latest version of the package late Friday night. It included deep rollbacks of numerous Inflation Reduction Act tax credits. There was also a new and unexpected tax on wind and solar projects.
Senate moderates are said to be pushing amendments to strip the new tax and tweak other language, according to an aide granted anonymity to speak candidly. Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) filed a lengthy one Sunday.
The bill would cut off climate law credits for projects that aren’t “placed in service” — or plugged into the grid — by the end of 2028. That’s more aggressive than a previous Senate draft.
The legislation retains a Senate proposal against credits for companies using components from adversaries like China. That language is more lenient than the House version. Still, the Senate added an excise tax on wind and solar projects that don’t follow certain supply chain rules.
A preliminary assessment from the Rhodium Group, an independent consulting firm, said that new provision could increase the cost of wind and solar projects by 10 to 20 percent, and could lead to higher electricity prices.
Neil Bradly, a policy executive with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote on X: “Overall, the Senate has produced a strong, pro-growth bill. That said, taxing energy production is never good policy, whether oil & gas or, in this case, renewables.”
Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in a statement, “Any Senator who votes for this bill is voting for higher energy prices, a weaker economy, and a less secure America.”
Trump and Energy Secretary Chris Wright lobbied to end subsidies for renewables, with the help of fossil fuel advocates like Alex Epstein, who said he did not agree with the new excise tax.
“Wind and solar subsidies have been particularly wasteful and counterproductive,” Wright wrote in an op-ed last week shared by the Department of Energy on Saturday.
The legislation has a notable victory for hydrogen. It would extend incentives for clean hydrogen production to 2028, instead of eliminating them this year as the previous Senate version proposed.
Senators kept credits for non-carbon energy sources, including nuclear, hydropower and geothermal, for projects that start construction by 2033. They also kept “transferability,” which allows project sponsors to transfer credits to a third party.
The latest text moved the end of electric vehicle consumer credits to Sept. 30, up from the six-month timeline previously proposed, while credits for charging infrastructure would end in June 2026.
Elon Musk, in a post on X, called the bill “utterly insane and destructive.” “It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future,” he said.
But Trump, who once considered Musk a close adviser, pointed to wind energy when attacking Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who voted Saturday against taking up the megabill and has lobbied for renewable energy credits.
“He loves China made windmills that will cost a fortune, ruin the landscape, and produce the most expensive Energy on Earth,” Trump wrote on the Truth Social platform, which he owns.
Tillis on Sunday announced he would not run for reelection. He blamed politics and partisanship.
Public land sales
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) tried for weeks to convince colleagues and groups to support the sale of some public lands for housing.
Even though a similar proposal failed in the House after opposition from Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) and others, Lee modified his language several times.
The Senate parliamentarian — who decides what can be considered under budget reconciliation — was reviewing a plan for limited sales near urban areas when Lee decided to give up.
Lee on Saturday night said he removed the sales because he was “unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families, not to China, not to BlackRock and not to any foreign interests.”
Montana Republican Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy were preparing a floor amendment to strip public land sales language before Lee relented.
“Public lands belong in public hands. Blocking the sale of public lands is a victory for our Montana way of life,” Daines and Sheehy said in a statement.
“We look forward to the final passage of the Big Beautiful Bill in order to prevent the largest tax increase in American history, secure the border, unleash American energy, and most importantly, implement President Trump’s America First agenda that Montanans — and folks across the country — overwhelmingly support and sent us here to enact,” they added.
Other energy, environment provisions
The megabill’s other energy and environment provisions have been less contentious within the Republican Party but would still have significant impacts.
The legislation would claw back unobligated spending from the Inflation Reduction Act, including for EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and Department of Energy loans.
However, the bill would expand to $1 billion a new energy dominance loan program at DOE. Wright had lobbied for loan office funding, particularly for nuclear projects.
The megabill would reinstate quarterly onshore oil and gas lease sales and would require new lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska’s Cook Inlet, the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The legislation would require significant revenue sharing with Alaska, to increase in fiscal 2034.
The Energy and Natural Resources portion of the package also includes language to promote new coal lease sales and timber harvests.
Republicans would delay implementation of the climate law fee on methane leaks by a decade. They would zero out penalties for automakers that don’t comply with fuel economy standards.
When it comes to permitting, the megabill would accelerate National Environmental Policy Act reviews for companies that pay a fee. The administration has already moved to cut down NEPA timelines.
Cutting room floor
Other permitting provisions were cut by lawmakers or because of adverse rulings from Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough.
She said proposals to allow companies that pay a fee to get certain litigation exemptions and bypass a key step in the natural gas export permitting process did not comply with budget reconciliation rules.
Similarly, MacDonough ruled against text that would have exempted offshore oil and gas projects from NEPA review, as well as a provision that would have taken away the Interior Department’s discretion to reduce fees for renewable energy projects on public land.
Provisions to ease new mining in Minnesota’s Superior National Forest and secure approval for the Ambler mining access road in Alaska fell off, along with a requirement for annual geothermal lease sales.
The parliamentarian ruled against reworked language from Lee to change the federal rulemaking process. She also axed a provision to fund agency reorganization plans.
Senators left out new fees on electric and hybrid cars, and the parliamentarian ruled against repealing EPA’s tailpipe emissions standard for model year 2027.
Reporters Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney, Timothy Cama, Garrett Downs, Kelsey Brugger and Nico Portuondo contributed.
This story also appears in Energywire.
