"I’m not sure what higher numbers, what that means. That probably needs to get translated for us,” Thune added. “But I know kind of what the threshold is for what we can get Republican votes for in the Senate, and I think if the number gets too high, anything that got passed in the Senate would be passed mostly with Democrat votes and a handful of Republicans, so it’s going to have to stay in sort of a realistic range.”
Another senior Senate Republican, Roy Blunt of Missouri, said a deal could be reached but that lawmakers probably needed an agreement by the end of September.
"We need to get busy finding out what we can all agree on,” he said, acknowledging it would have to be higher than the $1 trillion bill Senate Republicans released in July.
better late than never