The Senate Republicans narrowly pushed through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on Tuesday, moving it forward to the House for final approval after an intense 27-hour session of amendments.
The vote was 51-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote, positioning the Republicans to potentially place the bill on President Trump’s desk by their targeted Fourth of July deadline, provided that it garners enough support from House lawmakers.
Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined all 47 Democrats in voting “nay.”
This comprehensive bill, spanning 940 pages, extends the majority of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, reduces taxes on tips and overtime pay, and boosts spending on defense, border security, and energy exploration, while cutting back on entitlement expenditures.
The legislative bundle had inched through Congress, overcoming criticism from all parts of the Republican Party.
After more than a month of deliberation, the Senate modified the House version of the legislation to extend business tax reductions, deepen cuts to Medicaid, increase the debt limit by $5 trillion, and eliminate a moratorium on state restrictions against artificial intelligence.
On the Senate side, fiscal hawks like Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) grumbled over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s impact on the deficit, even threatening to derail its passage.
Eventually, leadership agreed to deepen cuts to Medicaid from the House version that passed the lower chamber last month, assuaging Johnson’s concerns.
“I’m convinced they’re committed to returning to reasonable pre-pandemic spending, and I’ll be highly involved in a process to achieve and maintain it,” Johnson told “Fox & Friends” Monday morning.
Leadership was also forced to grapple with moderate Republicans who were uneasy over reforms to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
“We can’t be cutting health care for working people and for poor people in order to constantly give special tax treatment to corporations and other entities,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) told NBC News last week.
But ultimately, Hawley backed the bill and GOP leadership was able to keep enough moderates on board.
Another dilemma had been a 10-year moratorium against state regulation of artificial intelligence, which had been nestled in the House version.
That had seemingly been a dealbreaker for Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and drew opposition from House Republicans such as far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who discovered that provision after it passed the lower chamber.
After negotiations and a collapsed compromise deal, the Senate decided to strip AI regulation language completely
On the House side, concerns from blue-state GOP lawmakers over the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions loomed large.
Senate Republicans modified the current $10,000 SALT cap to $40,000 for most Americans making below $500,000 per year — a concession that will be phased out after five years.
Hardliners on the House side also griped over the increased price tag of the measure, with the conservative House Freedom Caucus warning the Senate version is “not what we agreed to.” Rep. Keith Self (R-Texas) bashed the revised bill as “fiscally criminal.”
Senators had tweaked the House version of the bill to ensure that key business tax breaks, which were set to expire after about five years, remained permanent.
Overall, the Senate’s version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would increase the deficit by at least $3.3 trillion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That figure doesn’t account for interest on the debt, which would likely push its deficit impact closer to $3.9 trillion.
White House officials have assured fiscal hawks that more spending cuts are on the horizon during the appropriations process this fall and that economic growth as well as tariff revenue will reduce the deficit.
Republicans have been keen on getting the bill to Trump’s desk as soon as possible, with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), arguing that delays in passing the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cost the GOP dearly in the 2018 midterms.
Additionally, the bill has been the primary means by which Republicans plan to raise the debt ceiling, which the US was set to hit in August or September.
The Senate version approved Tuesday increased the debt ceiling by $5 trillion, up from $4 trillion in the House iteration.
Republicans passed the bill with a simple majority by relying on the Senate reconciliation process, which significantly constrained the type of legislation they could write.
If the bill undergoes any further changes in the House, both chambers will have to organize a conference committee to craft a final version of the legislation, which will have to be voted through Congress yet again.
