Joseph Lord, Nathan Worcester and Jackson Richman
Contributing Writers
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate passed its version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act at midday on Tuesday after a “vote-a-rama” that began the previous day and continued through the night.
Vice President JD Vance broke a 50-50 tie to secure passage of the bill.
Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted in opposition.
Other holdouts, including Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, ultimately supported the legislation despite misgivings.
Moderate Republicans had been concerned that proposed cuts to Medicaid were too steep, while fiscal conservatives have criticized the bill for not cutting enough spending.
Through the night, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., labored to find agreement among the Republican caucus members, several of whom had submitted amendments to tailor the bill to their liking. The final Senate bill represents weeks of compromise and deal-making among Republicans, which culminated in this narrow victory.
The passage is a significant political win for President Donald Trump, enacting provisions for critical elements of his second-term agenda, including increased border security, the extension of the 2017 tax cuts, rescinding so-called green-energy tax credits, and no tax on tips or overtime.
The bill now moves to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., now faces the difficult task of corralling both the conservatives and the moderates within his narrow majority in support of the bill.
Congress had been racing to pass the bill through both chambers by a self-imposed deadline of Independence Day, a goal that now seems in doubt as the legislation returns to the House for consideration. But Trump on Tuesday suggested he was open to delaying the deadline.
Speaking to reporters ahead of the vote, Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said it would be “a challenge to get it all done by July 4.”
Johnson, meanwhile, told reporters he was “very hopeful that we’ll get the job done,” though he avoided promising passage within the next two days.
Vote-A-Rama
Senators had worked through the weekend to get the bill passed, holding the floor open for 35 hours between Saturday and the early hours of Monday.
Much of that time — 16 hours — was dedicated to a reading of the full text of the 940-page bill requested by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., a tactic that stalled the beginning of debate on the legislation.
The upper chamber reconvened at 9 a.m. on Monday to begin the marathon vote series dubbed a “vote-a-rama” — used to describe vote series on amendments for reconciliation bills, which must all be allowed a vote as part of the reconciliation process, which requires only a simple majority for a bill to pass the Senate.
The pace on the Senate side of the Capitol building was frenetic amid the long “vote-a-rama” on amendments to the budget bill. While senators usually have answers ready for most any issue, Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, admitted he was having trouble keeping up with all the developments happening behind the scenes.
“There’s so many moving pieces,” he told reporters.
The noon vote came after more than 24 hours of politicking as a handful of key Republicans lobbied for their amendments.
Medicaid
Tillis, who announced on Sunday that he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2026, tied his opposition to the bill’s cuts to Medicaid.
In a speech on the Senate floor during the debate on Sunday, he spoke critically of the measure’s changes to Medicaid, saying that Trump had been “misinformed” about the nature of the bill’s cuts to the entitlement program.
The current draft of the bill imposes new 80-hour monthly work requirements for able-bodied adults to receive benefits. It also reduces the maximum provider tax states can charge hospitals and doctors to pay for their state Medicaid program.
Tillis said that the changes break Trump’s campaign promises to protect Medicaid, comparing it to President Barack Obama’s politically infamous “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” quote on the Affordable Care Act.
Paul, meanwhile, has tied his opposition to the bill’s $5 trillion increase for the debt ceiling, saying often that he would support the package only if this provision were removed and given a separate vote.
Possible House Controversies
With the package now heading to the House, Medicaid cuts are likely to be a primary concern for many Republicans from purple districts.
Moderates like Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., and other Republican lawmakers — particularly from states like New York and California — were persuaded to advance the bill through the House in earlier votes.
However, final passage could be a different matter.
Meanwhile, conservatives could have additional objections.
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, has been a leading voice in opposition to the clean energy tax credits. The expedited removal of these credits was a condition of conservatives’ support for the bill’s passage in the House. The adoption of the Grassley-Ernst-Murkowski amendment could thus prompt stiff opposition from Roy and other conservatives.
“The House budget framework was clear: no new deficit spending in the One Big Beautiful Bill. The Senate’s version adds $651 billion to the deficit — and that’s before interest costs, which nearly double the total. That’s not fiscal responsibility. It’s not what we agreed to,” the House Freedom Caucus wrote on the social media platform X.
“The Senate must make major changes and should at least be in the ballpark of compliance with the agreed-upon House budget framework. Republicans must do better.”
Others have joined in Paul’s objections to the Senate’s $5 trillion debt ceiling increase, which is $1 trillion more than the amount authorized by the original House draft.
Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and other members of the House Freedom Caucus have also been outspoken in their opposition to such a steep debt ceiling increase. Norman and others initially refused to vote for the budget blueprint authorizing committees to begin work on the bill due to the steep rise it would authorize in U.S. debt.
Another sticking point with several lawmakers in the lower chamber could be the bill’s projected impact on the deficit.
The Congressional Budget Office released updated estimates on Friday projecting that the reconciliation bill will increase the deficit by around $3.25 trillion.
Despite these challenges, Mullin was nevertheless optimistic, telling reporters, “We think we’re going to pass a bill that they can pass.”
