Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, passed the four-hour mark on Thursday morning in a marathon speech in the House opposing Republicans’ signature legislation carrying out President Trump’s domestic agenda.
Beginning his remarks before dawn, Mr. Jeffries said that he was “planning to take my sweet time” with his speech.
It was not a filibuster, the Senate tactic that allows a member to speechify for unlimited time, delaying action indefinitely. But Mr. Jeffries was making use of his prerogative as a leader to stretch his allotted 60 seconds of speaking time for far longer, in a House tradition known as a “magic minute.” In doing so, he was attempting to seize a pivotal moment for Democrats — who have toiled to find a cohesive strategy, message and messenger for countering Mr. Trump — to make a forceful case against the president and his agenda.
The speech was the final Democratic delay standing in the way of passing the G.O.P. bill to extend tax cuts and slash social safety net programs, which Mr. Trump has said he wants to sign by July 4. But it had no chance of stopping it.
Mocking the name Republicans have bestowed on the bill — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — Mr. Jeffries said, “Republicans are trying to jam this one, big, ugly bill down the throats of the American people,” and urged lawmakers to vote against it. The speech mainly focused on the ramifications of spending cuts to social safety programs, laying out stories of vulnerable Americans who might be hurt by its reductions to Medicaid and SNAP food assistance.
“Leadership requires courage, conviction, compassion — and yet what we have seen from this administration and co-conspirators on the Republican side of the aisle is cruelty, chaos and corruption,” he said, adding that the bill was “an extraordinary assault on the health care of the American people.”
Mr. Jeffries, who spoke deliberately and frequently referred to a large binder of notes, addressed a mostly empty House chamber, though some Democratic colleagues clustered behind him and applauded at key points in a show of encouragement.
Speaker Mike Johnson was likely to address the chamber once Mr. Jeffries finished. He also has unlimited time, in theory, but he told reporters earlier on Thursday that he expected his speech would be significantly shorter than that of the Democratic leader. A vote on the bill was expected soon after Mr. Johnson’s remarks conclude.
Michael Gold covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on immigration policy and congressional oversight.
Matthew Mpoke Bigg is a London-based reporter on the Live team at The Times, which covers breaking and developing news.
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