Washington — The House is nearing a final vote Thursday on President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” after Republican leaders overcame resistance from GOP holdouts in a dramatic overnight session and advanced the Senate version of the measure early Thursday morning.
Republicans are trying to approve the final version of the legislation ahead of a self-imposed July 4 deadline to get the bill to the president’s desk. After hours of delay, the House voted 219-213 to advance the bill, scoring a key victory for House Speaker Mike Johnson. Lawmakers began voting at about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, but didn’t wrap up until about 3:20 a.m. Thursday, as GOP leaders and the White House spoke with holdouts for hours to overcome their objections.
“What are the Republicans waiting for??? What are you trying to prove??? MAGA IS NOT HAPPY, AND IT’S COSTING YOU VOTES!!!” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social shortly after midnight.
Following the procedural vote, the House began debating the bill. Just before 5 a.m., House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries began addressing the chamber for a “magic minute,” which allows the leader unlimited speaking time. Three hours later, the New York Democrat was still addressing the chamber, pledging to “take his time” as he highlighted the Americans whom he said would suffer because of the bill.
“I rise today in strong opposition to Donald Trump’s one, big ugly bill,” Jeffries said as he began speaking. “This disgusting, abomination, the GOP tax scam, that guts Medicaid, rips food from the mouths of children, seniors and veterans, and rewards billionaires with massive tax breaks. Every single Democrat stands in strong opposition to this bill because we’re standing up for the American people.”
Johnson is expected to speak after Jeffries concludes, followed by the final vote.
House hardliners push back against Senate changes
After the Senate approved the bill Tuesday, House GOP leaders had aimed to move ahead quickly on the signature legislation of Mr. Trump’s second-term agenda, which includes ramped-up spending for border security, defense and energy production and extends trillions of dollars in tax cuts, partially offset by substantial cuts to health care and nutrition programs.
But some House Republicans, who voted to pass an earlier version of the bill in May, were unhappy with the Senate’s changes.
Holdouts, including moderates and members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, met with Mr. Trump on Wednesday as the White House pressured House Republicans to vote for the bill. While some lawmakers described the meetings as productive, a number of conservatives said ahead of a rule vote Wednesday afternoon that they thought the procedural vote would fail.
Johnson has spent weeks pleading with his Senate counterparts not to make any major changes to the version of the bill that passed the lower chamber by a single vote in May. He said the Senate bill’s changes “went a little further than many of us would’ve preferred.”
The Senate-passed bill includes steeper Medicaid cuts, a higher increase in the debt limit and changes to the House bill’s green energy policies and the state and local tax deduction.
Other controversial provisions that faced pushback in both chambers, including the sale of public lands in nearly a dozen states, a 10-year moratorium on states regulating artificial intelligence and an excise tax on the renewable energy industry, were stripped from the Senate bill before heading back to the House.
Before the critical procedural vote ended, Johnson told reporters that Mr. Trump was “directly engaged,” in the conversations with skeptical members.
“Members wanted to hear certain assurances from him about what’s ahead, what the future will entail, and what we’re going to do next, and all of that,” Johnson said. “And he was very, very helpful in that process.”
In the wee hours on Thursday, five House Republicans had voted no on the rule vote, which was enough to tank the vote with a razor-thin GOP majority in the lower chamber, and eight possible holdouts had not voted. But the vote remained open as GOP leaders worked to shore up support, allowing lawmakers to change their votes from no to yes.
Mr. Trump had taken to Truth Social as a handful of Republican holdouts didn’t appear to be budging, declaring “FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!”
Republican leaders ultimately won the support of about a dozen GOP opponents to the rule. And when the vote finally came to an end, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania was the sole Republican opposed.