House Republicans voted to pass Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” bill early Thursday, giving the president and House Speaker Mike Johnson a major legislative victory on their domestic spending and border agenda.
The vote came down 215 to 214 as GOP members fell in line after weeks of grandstanding and negotiations to get it across the House finish line. It now faces a whole new set of hurdles in the Senate.
Johnson had his hands full with rowdy Republican lawmakers over the last few days and through the weekend as they showed up at his office for marathon series of sit-downs to demand changes to the legislation in return for their “yes” votes.
The speaker suggested there could be a vote as early as Wednesday and maintained optimism throughout the day, but he faced eleventh-hour roadblocks as the House Freedom Caucus said they were not ready to support the bill and rushed back to the White House for a second time in two days to hash things out.
In the end, the speaker got what he was pushing for: a vote in the House before lawmakers head out for the Memorial Day weekend.
Johnson had little room for error as Republicans hold a narrow 220 seat majority. It would only have taken a few GOP “no” votes to torpedo the bill as Democrats all remained united against it.
Both hard-line and moderate lawmakers used that to their advantage to leverage tweaks to the final legislation ranging from reforms to Medicaid, rolling back clean energy tax credits and other tax provisions.
Among the revisions revealed late Wednesday were speeding up the implementation of Medicaid work requirements to the end of 2026 rather than January 2029—a move to appear right-wing members. It also increased the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap to $40,000 for individuals making $500,000 or less, a provision pushed by moderates.
The bill would extend the tax provisions set to expire in Trump’s tax law passed in 2017 during his first term while also creating several new tax deductions.
It would also include exemptions for tips and overtime pay, which the president pitched on the campaign trail, but the deductions would only run only through 2028.
As GOP lawmakers looked to cut spending, they added a series of major reforms to Medicaid, which is expected to lead to millions of people losing their insurance coverage.
Some of the changes include states having to impose work requirements and shortening the enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act. The provisions were part of the portion of the bill drafted by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which was tasked with finding more than $800 billion in savings over a decade.
The legislation also tightens eligibility requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) program and shifts a portion of the benefit costs to states.
It also includes $350 billion in new spending on national defense and border security.
Nonpartisan analysis found the legislation if enacted before its final tweaks would add between $2 trillion and $5 trillion to the deficit. The latest Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis found it would uncreate the deficit by $3.8 trillion over ten years while included spending cuts amount to $1 trillion. The lowest-income households would see their resources drop while the highest income households are set to get a boost, the CBO found.
The bill also would raise the debt limit by $4 trillion, averting a devastating default on the U.S. debt if Congress did not act by this summer.
No Democrats voted for the bill, blasting it as a massive giveaway to billionaires on the backs of vulnerable American families.
As Republicans huddled behind closed doors to negotiate on Wednesday, Democrats rallied against it, warning of cuts to Medicaid and food assistance.
When the bill heads to the Senate it will face another round of hurdles. GOP senators have raise issues with the House version’s Medicaid provisions, tax cuts expiring and impact on the deficit.
Republican leaders do not expect the legislation to remain in its current form in the Senate—as is common with legislation of this type—but it’s hard to see where the party reaches consensus as the president pushes them toward the finish line.
This is a breaking story and will be updated…
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