Senate Republicans have just delivered a major legislative victory to President Donald Trump, advancing his landmark “One Big, Beautiful Bill” in dramatic fashion.
Senators are now sending the $3.3 trillion package back to the House for final approval.
With all Democrats voting in opposition and three Republicans breaking ranks, it came down to Vice President JD Vance to cast the decisive tie-breaking vote.
Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Susan Collins (R-ME) broke party ranks.
It was a critical step toward putting Trump’s ambitious tax and immigration overhaul on his desk by the July 4 deadline, a timeline Republican leaders remain determined to meet.
“We’re going to get this done,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO).
“We’re going to get this to the president by July 4.”
The bill is packed with Trump’s top legislative priorities.
It includes a permanent extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, deep spending cuts, and sweeping Medicaid and border reforms.
However, the bill faced stiff resistance from Democrats and some moderate Republicans.
Senate GOP leadership had hoped to secure votes from Collins and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) by adding late concessions to the final version, including doubling the rural hospital fund to $50 billion and delaying work requirements for SNAP recipients in states like Alaska.
The strategy mostly worked, but not quite enough to avoid Vance’s dramatic return to the Capitol to break the tie.
Back in the lower chamber, members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus are warning they may not back the Senate version.
They are citing concerns over the depth of spending cuts.
Meanwhile, moderates are voicing unease over proposed Medicaid reforms.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) urged the Senate to avoid last-minute alterations that could tank support in the House.
“We know they’re going to have some issues over there,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) acknowledged.
“But we think we’re going to pass a bill that they can pass.”
Democrats were irate, meanwhile, and their leader didn’t hide it.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) accused Trump of “lying” about the bill’s contents, particularly over proposed Medicaid cuts and the projected economic gains.
In a final act of protest, Schumer moved to strip the bill’s official title, “The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” from the legislative record.
“The American people will not forget what Republicans do in this chamber today,” Schumer warned.
Despite the theatrics, the bill’s path forward is clearer than ever.
The legislation would:
• Permanently extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts
• Inject billions into the Pentagon and border enforcement
• Slash federal spending by an estimated $1.5 trillion
• Reform Medicaid and other entitlement programs
Democrats argue the bill would push millions off Medicaid and worsen the national deficit.
The CBO scored the bill under two frameworks: under current law, it would add roughly $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade, but under current policy assumptions, just $507 billion.
Sen. John Thune (R-SD), leading Republicans in the chamber, dismissed the Democrats’ deficit complaints as hypocrisy.
“I’ve not been in a single spending fight where Republicans weren’t trying to cut, and Democrats weren’t trying to spend more,” Thune said.
“Except when it comes to national security — then they’re happy to cut.”
The legislation marks the GOP’s most significant fiscal and policy push since Trump’s first term, and Republicans say it’s long overdue.
As the House prepares to take up the bill again, Republican leadership is pressing to make good on Trump’s July 4 deadline.
The deadline is a symbolic move aimed at declaring independence from big-government spending and reasserting American economic strength.
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