Lisa Murkowski does not seem to be enjoying the summer.
Perhaps it’s the insane heat and humidity. She is from Alaska, after all.
But judging from the Republican’s responses to questions on the Senate’s passage of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” last week — where she once again was a pivotal holdout ... until she wasn’t — Murkowski’s demeanor of late has more to do with the ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ position her independent streak has fated for her.
Asked by The Independent Thursday about her keen hope that the House of Representatives would fix what troubled her about the bill she voted to pass — which extends the 2017 tax cuts that Trump signed while also significantly slashing welfare programs like Medicaid and forcing states to shoulder more of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps — Murkowski bristled.
“Yeah, and they didn’t do it,” she said of the House’s unchanged passage of the bill in time for Trump to sign it into law on July 4. When pressed about it, Murkowski sniped back, “You know what happened today? A whole new crisis.”
“And so I wish I had the luxury of time to regret things, but we just got to keep moving forward,” Murkowski concluded in her brush off of the question.
She didn’t elaborate on what that new crisis might be.
“That’s it,” she snapped. “You got one.” And then she walked away from the gaggle.
Republican leaders finally swayed Murkowski on July 1 with a deal that created a carve-out for work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP and, in a direct appeal, increased the amount that Alaska whaling captains can deduct from their expenses as charitable contributions from $10,000 to $50,000.
She insisted she wasn’t pleased with the final bill, despite voting yes and creating a 50-50 tie that Vice President J.D. Vance was able to break, rationalizing that the House might make final changes before ratifying it and sending it to the White House for Trump’s signature.
Those changes never came as the lower chamber passed the same bill that the Senate had sent back to it, in large measure to meet Trump’s deadline of July 4 for passage.
Murkowski said she is now trying to move forward the 12 appropriations spending bills that Congress needs to pass by the end of September to keep the government open. If the Senate does not pass these, then it would need to either pass a stopgap spending bill or the government would shut down.
As a member of the Appropriations Committee, Murkowski has immense authority in the decisionmaking for the spending bills alongside her fellow moderate, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who voted against Trump’s tax and spending bill out of concerns it would endanger rural hospitals in her home state.
Murkowski has long expressed frustration at having to answer questions about the news of the day since Trump returned to office. Ahead of the vote-a-rama, Murkowski dodged when asked about the fact the bill would phase out renewable energy credits she wanted to preserve.
“I haven't decided whether to share comments with reporters this morning or not,” she told The Independent.
“You're the first one to ask me a question this morning, so you win the bonus round.”
She later offered a brief response about the actual policy.
“I don’t want to see us backslide on clean energy,” Murkowski said.
In Februrary, Murkowski avoided reporters asking her about Trump’s comments about the United States taking a “long-term ownership position” of the Gaza Strip by hiding behind a crate of boxes being wheeled in the Senate basement. She later offered a tepid response to The Independent.
“I think they've seen enough turmoil in that region,” she told The Independent. “I don't think that we need to contribute with a proposal.”
After she voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has spent decades promoting the debunked theory that vaccines cause autism, to be Health and Human Services Secretary despite her concerns about him, she said the Senate would have a way to handle him.
“What we need to do as members of Congress who have received those commitments, we need to make sure that they are adhered to,” she told The Indepndent in February. “It's going to require close communication with the secretary in his role.”
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