Business

UPDATED: GOP senators back motion on tax bill after hold up

by Jordain Carney - 11/30/17 5:26 PM ET

Republican deficit hawks held up a motion on the Senate tax plan for close to an hour before voting against sending the bill back to the Finance Committee.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and other GOP leaders huddled around Sens. Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) on the Senate floor as Republicans discussed the tax bill.

At one point, almost 20 senators were huddled around the Senate parliamentarian as she appeared to be explaining a document in her hand.

{mosads}After the vote was open for about an hour, Flake, Corker and Johnson voted against sending the bill back to committee.

The unprecedented floor drama came after the Joint Committee on Taxation said Thursday that projected economic growth under the bill would reduce revenue losses by $408 billion over 10 years, but the bill overall would still cost about $1 trillion.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said the discussions on the floor were focused on finding an alternative to the “trigger” concept backed by Corker, which would impose higher taxes if economic growth forecast under the bill fails to materialize, causing the deficit to skyrocket.

“It doesn’t look like the trigger is going to work. … So we have an alternative, frankly, tax increase we don’t want to do,” he said.

Tags Bob Corker John Cornyn Mitch McConnell Ron Johnson Tax reform