Top Republican claims enough votes for Senate OK of tax bill

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said Friday that Senate Republicans have the votes to pass a sweeping GOP-sponsored tax overhaul measure. 

“We’re confident in the 50 and we’d like to build on that,” the Texas Republican told reporters.

The Senate has resume consideration of the Senate Republican tax plan. More than five hours of debate remain on the clock if senators choose to use all of the allotted 20 hours of debate time. Following debate, members may offer an unlimited number of amendments, which is a period known as “vote-a-rama.”

A roll call vote on a Democratic amendment has been scheduled for 11 a.m. ET and is not expected to get the 51 votes needed to pass.

Senate Republican leadership hopes to have the final vote Friday, but no final passage vote has been scheduled yet. Republicans continue to negotiate with their members to shore up the votes to pass the bill. 

The GOP tax plan experienced a delay after the so-called “trigger” championed by Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tennessee and Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, was found to have violated Senate budget rules.

As a result, Senate Republicans are working on more changes to the legislation. The trigger would have raised taxes if future revenues or economic growth failed to meet the projections. A substitute for the trigger would be a “stair step” corporate tax increases over a period of time after the initial cut which could prove to be hard for conservative Republicans to swallow.

A Joint Committee on Taxation report found that economic growth from the tax plan would offset $407 billion of the nearly $1.5 trillion cost, adding $1 trillion to the deficit over a 10-year period.  Republicans had claimed the bill would pay for itself.  Republican leaders rejected the JCT’s findings with Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, describing the JCT’s estimates as “completely wrong.”

CBS News’ John Nolen, Alan He and Catherine Reynolds contributed to this report.