Fetterman says ‘I just want to go home’ as Senate votes on ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
“I’ve already missed our entire trip to the beach,” Fetterman said as the Senate continues to debate President Donald Trump’s budget bill.
Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.) is losing his patience as debate over the “Big Beautiful Bill” drags on.
“Oh my God, I just want to go home,” he told reporters on Monday, in response to a question about how long voting is expected to take. “I’ve already missed our entire trip to the beach.”
The Senate began voting on amendments to the bill on Monday, after a weekend of debate and a nearly 16-hour reading of the entire 940-page piece of legislation. Voting is expected to continue late into the night, as Republicans race to meet President Trump’s July 4 deadline.
Fetterman told reporters that he expects the votes to roughly follow party lines.
“The only interesting votes are gonna be on the margin, whether that’s [Susan] Collins or Johnson and those,” he said. “But all the Democrats, we all know how that’s gonna go. I don’t think it’s really helpful to put people here till some ungodly hour.”
Later, in a post on X, Fetterman called himself a “HARD NO” on the budget bill, saying he won’t “support cutting Medicaid, SNAP or adding up to $5T to our national debt.”
“Not one single Democrat will vote for the ”big beautiful bill,”” he wrote.
Fetterman’s former communications director, Joe Calvello, reposted a tweet about Fetterman’s comments to reporters, with a caption critical of his ex-boss: “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.”
In recent months, Fetterman came under criticism for his frequent absences from Senate votes and his few public appearances in Pennsylvania.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, on a dairy farm in Carlisle on Monday afternoon talking about federal cuts to a food bank program he has filed a lawsuit over, was surprised by Fetterman’s comments and said he didn’t know what to say.
“Look, it’s a lot of work to stand up and fight for the American people,” Shapiro said, noting that the GOP-backed bill will cut health care and food benefits for hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvania’s low-income residents.
“I want every single senator there fighting like hell to protect Pennsylvania and protecting the interests of the American people,” Shapiro added.
This article was updated to include comment from Gov. Josh Shapiro.