Trump’s megabill squeaks through Senate, but House can still reject revised version
The Senate on Tuesday passed PresidentDonald Trump'smegabill after days of negotiations and amarathon amendment sessionthat at times appeared to imperil the domestic policy package.
The final vote was 51-50, with Vice President JD Vance casting a final, tie-breaking vote. Republican Sens.Thom Tillis, N.C.,Rand Paul, Ky., and Susan Collins, Me., all broke with their party and voted against the massive spending bill.
Senate Majority LeaderJohn Thune's victory in the upper chamber may be short-lived, however, as the megabill now goes to the House, where it faces an uncertain future amid firm GOP hold-outs.
The House, which justsqueaked out its versionof the bill, must accept the Senate's substantial changes to the package, a daunting task especially as some GOP lawmakers have expressed continued concerns over the bill'simpact on the deficit.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects thebill will add at least $3 trillionto the federal deficit over the next decade.
Some House Republicans reluctantly voted for the package in May, and now, with the Senate changes, which include deeperMedicaidcuts, lawmakers are expressing continued resistance.
With his narrow majority, House SpeakerMike Johnsoncan only afford to lose three votes in his chamber to pass the legislation in a party-line vote.
Still, Republican senators are hailing the vote passage in their chamber as a victory, following a weekend session of work and a record-breaking vote-a-rama, which lasted 24 hours.
Senators have voted on dozens of amendments to the bill in a marathon sessions.
Behind the scenes, GOP leaders have been negotiating with hold-outs in their conference who, for days, threatened to sink Trump's bill.
Ultimately, none of the amendments fundamentally changed the bill, but Democrats seized on the process to force their GOP colleagues to go on the record on some politically tenuous positions.
As the bill heads back to the House, lawmakers are rushing to try to get the package to Trump's desk before a self-imposedJuly 4 deadline.
The package, which seeks to codify Trump's sweeping domestic policy agenda, faces a tenuous path in the lower chamber.
Hard-line conservative House members, such as Rep.Chip Roy, R-Texas, have voiced frustration over what they view as the Senate using the July 4 deadline to force a vote in the lower chamber, despite persistent opposition.
"Rumor is Senate plans to jam the House with its weaker, unacceptable OBBB before 7/4," Roywroteon X last week, referring to Trump's "one big, beautiful bill," which was renamed right before the vote.
"This is not a surprise but it would be a mistake," Roy said, adding that he "would not vote for it as it is."
The Senate passage comes as Trump last week ramped up his pressure campaign on lawmakers to pass the bill before July 4, increasing the stakes of the self-imposed deadline
"To my friends in the Senate, lock yourself in a room if you must, don't go home, and GET THE DEAL DONE THIS WEEK," he wrote on Truth Social.
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