UPDATED: THE TWO MEN WHO WROTE THE ETHICS DEAL DISAGREE ABOUT IT

Thom Tillis and Ruben Gallego sent the White House a joint ethics counterproposal in July. On September 14 the White House sent ethics language back. On the morning of the vote the two co-authors read the same text and reached opposite conclusions.

Tillis said he is very pleased with what the White House delivered on ethics and will vote for cloture.

Gallego said the ethics proposal leaves a lot to be desired, and that he plans to submit a counter-proposal.

A counter-proposal to the counter-proposal he co-wrote.

Both readings can be honest. Tillis may have gotten the half he cared about. Gallego may have wanted more than came back. But neither man has said which parts of his own July language returned altered, and that is the only question that would settle which of them is reading it right.

The arithmetic has not moved since July. Cloture needs sixty. Republicans hold fifty-three. The seven Democrats who signed the July 22 statement are the whole path to the number, and Gallego is one of the seven.

UPDATED September 16, 2026. This story published at 2:03 p.m. Eastern on September 15. Sixteen minutes later Thom Tillis voted against cloture on the bill whose ethics language he had said that morning he was very pleased with. Roll call 234 failed forty-nine to fifty, with sixty required. Three other Republicans voted no: Susan Collins of Maine, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Jerry Moran of Kansas. No Democrat and no Independent voted yes. The two authors did not just disagree about the deal. Sixteen minutes after this page said one of them was pleased with it, he voted against it. The bill was eleven votes short, so his vote did not decide anything. It just told you what the agreement was worth.