I’m not sure anyone is surprised. This was going to be a pretty hard lift based off of the competing divisions in the Senate. It will be interesting to see when they will mark it up in 2026 because there are the spending bills that need to be passed by the end of January. I could see this slipping till February and then with reconciliation with the House this being a June or even a July law being passed.
The House version is definitely dead in the Senate which just means more time and resources being devoted to hashing out a new compromise.
