The White House is still vetting the massive spending deal that was released late Wednesday and is trying to get several questions answered, according to several Republican senators and aides.
GOP senators said they would like to get assurances that President Trump will sign the bill if it gets to his desk, possibly later today.
“We’d like to know it’s a bill the President is going to sign. Hopefully they will let us know,” said Sen. John Thune, the second-ranking GOP leader as he left a Republican conference lunch where the issue was discussed at length.
Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, said getting sign off before a vote would “make a big difference.”
“Nobody wants to enter into a pointless exercise if the President is going to veto it,” Kennedy said. “There are a lot of people, myself included, who would like to know what the President thinks.”
Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford said there are about four outstanding issues the White House is questioning.
“Obviously, the White House is going through it, reading it, the same thing we are,” he said. “We just got it at midnight last night. We are just 14 hours into a 1,000 pages.”
“Every time there is a question that comes up, they try to identify why is this in here, what does this mean, how does it affect other parts," Lankford added,
Sen. Ron Johnson, a Republican from Wisconsin, echoed those who thought it would be good to get the President’s approval before a vote.
“Waiting to see what the President is thinking,” Johnson told CNN. “Doesn’t make much sense to support something he’s going to veto.”
Meanwhile, senators in both parties wait for a notification for votes on the long-stalled spending package. Even Sen. Richard Shelby, the top Republican in the talks, said he doesn’t know when a vote will happen.
“We hope sometime this afternoon. The leader hasn’t told us. The earlier the better,” he said.