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Senators need their vacation time, too.
Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman vented Monday that he would rather put his toes in the sand than deal with a series of votes ahead of expected passage of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
“Oh my God, I just want to go home. I’ve already, my — I’ve missed our entire trip to the beach,” the hulking Fetterman groused to reporters.
“I’m going to vote no. There’s no drama that — we know [how] the votes are going to go,” he added. “And I think, I don’t think it’s really helpful to put people here till some ungodly hour.”
The Senate was supposed to break on Friday for the Independence Day holiday and return July 7. But Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) opted to keep senators back until voting on the megabill could be completed.
Party leaders are renowned for leveraging the threat of working holidays and late nights to force recalcitrant pols into line.
Few lawmakers ever actually admit publicly that they would like to bail, though many privately feel that way.
House lawmakers were similarly confined to the Capitol complex through the wee hours last month while working on the legislative bundle — with some even caught dozing off during committee markups.
The Senate voted late Saturday to begin work on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and much of Monday was given over to a series of party-line votes on amendments to the legislation.
“The only interesting votes are going to be on the margins, whether that’s [Republicans Susan] Collins [of Maine] or [Ron] Johnson [of Wisconsin] and those,” Fetterman (D-Pa.) further complained. “But [with] all the Democrats, we all know how that’s going to go.”
Amid backlash to his comments on social media, the 55-year-old underscored that he had no interest in supporting Trump’s domestic agenda.
“Not one single Democrat will vote for the ‘big beautiful bill,’” Fetterman said on X. “I’m here to vote on these amendments and keep the ball rolling. I’m a HARD NO on the final bill and won’t support cutting Medicaid, SNAP or adding up to $5T to our national debt.”
Lefty critics had pummeled Fetterman for admitting that he’d prefer to be on the beach with his family than cooped up in the Capitol voting on amendments to a bill that Democrats can’t stop.
“This bill is the biggest transfer of wealth from the working class to the 1% and Fetterman’s message to voter is that he just wants to go home,” sniped Joe Calvello, Fetterman’s former campaign communications director, on X.
The Senate is expected to vote on final passage later Monday, sending the legislation to the House, which could take it up as early as Wednesday.
