Sen. Tina Smith, a Minnesota Democrat, has been hospitalized after feeling ill on Wednesday and will not be available to assist Democrats during critical votes on the rescission package. Her office stated that she will stay overnight for observation, expecting to return to work soon.
The Minnesota Democrat will be unable to help Democrats as they seek to make changes to the $9 billion package of funding clawbacks in a “vote-a-rama” amendment series.
Democrats have failed in their efforts thus far to block pieces of the proposed $1.3 billion in cuts to public media and $8.2 billion in cuts to foreign aid. Some Republicans have backed proposed amendments from Democrats, but not enough to overcome the Republican majority thus far.
Smith’s absence means that, barring any other absences, Republicans will not need to rely on Vice President JD Vance to cast a tie-breaking vote on any amendments this evening. Vance traveled to Pennsylvania earlier on Wednesday and is scheduled to return to Washington this evening.