2 days ago
Senate removes Boundary Waters mining provision from Trump's "big, beautiful bill"
President Trump is still pushing for his "big, beautiful bill" to be passed by the July Fourth holiday.
The bill has already passed in the House and is now facing pushback in the Senate, where one Minnesota senator is celebrating what she called a "big win" against the president's plan.
Some of the changes to the bill would directly impact a pristine piece of Minnesota — the Boundary Waters.
Mining was set to return up north with a provision in the president's bill, until now. Democratic Sen. Tina Smith says she successfully fought to remove it.
Smith said deep in the bill, there was a provision to allow a Chilean-owned company permission to build a mine on the edge of the Boundary Waters.
Mining advocates say a mining return would provide hundreds of new jobs to the area, while those opposing say a mine would heavily pollute the land.
"In this environment, where you have over 1200 lakes in the Boundary Waters, that sulfuric acid will get into the entire water chain there, and it'll kill wild rice," Chris Knopf with Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness said. "It'll mobilize mercury that's otherwise inert, and the mercury will get nto the water, into the plants, into the animals, and then into humans. So it's bad for human health and bad for the environment."
Boundary Waters advocates say this is a win, but the fight isn't over.
Last month, House Republicans passed a version of the bill that included the mining provision. Now the bill is in the hands of the Senate, which is making changes before bringing it to a vote.
The bill has been controversial from the start. Democrats say it goes too far, will balloon the deficit, give tax cuts to the wealthy and cut too much from Medicaid.
Mr. Trump is also dealing with infighting in his own party. While some far-right Republicans argue the cuts don't go far enough, others disagree.
Outspoken Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on social media she would have voted "no" if she had "noticed" all parts of the bill.
Others say cuts to clean energy would cripple their economies.
Even former ally-turned-foe Elon Musk is weighing in. Musk originally headed the White House's Department of Government Efficiency. He's since called the president's bill a "disgusting abomination."
Wednesday morning on X, Musk said he "regrets some posts attacking the president," saying they "went too far."
