Next stop: The House of Representatives…
Vice President Vance cast the tie-breaking vote as Senate Republicans on Tuesday delivered a huge legislative victory for President Trump by passing his One Big, Beautiful Bill Act after hours of tense negotiations that lasted through the night.
The legislation appeared to be on the cusp of failing on the floor after Senate GOP leaders spent hours trying to hash out a compromise with Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who voiced concerns that the legislation’s cuts to Medicaid and federal food assistance funding would hurt her home state.
At one point, Murkowski could be heard talking about the “vulnerable” on her phone as she walked briskly through the Capitol, avoiding reporters. The bill now heads to the House, where fiscal hawks in the House Freedom Caucus are frustrated with what they say are shallow spending cuts, and moderates are concerned over cuts to Medicaid. All have warned that they may not support the bill. Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is crammed with his and congressional Republicans’ legislative priorities, including billions for the Pentagon and to bolster the White House’s border and immigration agenda, the permanent extension of his 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, deep spending cuts and an effort to reform Medicaid. Senate Republicans have pitched the bill as a way to both turbocharge the economy and as a means to prevent Trump’s first-term tax cuts from expiring. They have simultaneously used it as a vehicle to achieve deep spending cuts in the neighborhood of $1.5 trillion
