President Trump's Big Beautiful Bill scrapes through a senate that splits even at 50-50, but a tie breaking vote from chair JD Vance sees the legislation go past the goal post - The senate had to sacrifice some $330 billion to buy rebel holdout Lisa Murkoski' vote to throw gains to her Alaska constituents - House Republicans are upset over the revisions in the bill

 

Vice President JD Vance rescued his boss Trump by casting his tie breaking vote to enable the passage of the President's Big Beautiful Bill, 51-50 , as three republicans flipped and voted with the democrats to divide the house evenly at 50-50. The senate now sends the bill to the house where there are hurdles.  

By TN Ashok.     Washington, July 01, 2025  

President Donald Trump’s revised Big Beautiful Bill with a glaring $3.3 trillion deficit over the next decade was passed by a tie breaking vote from the Vice President JD Vance, chair of the senate, as democrats aided by three republicans split even with Republicans to make the voting 50-50. The Republican-controlled Senate narrowly passed President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy package Tuesday, pushing it to the house, ad another steps closer to the president's desk for a sign off.  

Trump had mandated the republicans to pass the bill in the senate and through congress to land on his desk for signing off by July 04 when the BBB could commemorate with the Independence Day ceremony.  

The vote was 51-50, with Vice President JD Vance breaking a tie after three Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the legislation. In a marathon overnight session that spanned more than 24 hours, senators voted on dozens of amendments to bring changes to the legislation and GOP leaders dragged out many of the votes as they frantically worked to win over holdouts. They ultimately secured enough votes with a catch-all amendment that was similarly approved by a vote of 51-50. 

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who had expressed concerns throughout the process about the bill's cuts to social safety net programs, flipped at the last minute, because hers was a key vote for Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to win over. 

“I struggled mightily with the impact on the most vulnerable in this country, when you look to Medicaid and SNAP,” Murkowski told reporters after the vote, adding that she didn't get "everything" she wanted but that "I had to look on balance." 

Voting against the final bill, alongside all 47 Democrats, were Republican Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine. Paul opposed the bill because it would add trillions of dollars to the deficit, while Tillis and Collins feared the cuts to Medicaid were too steep. 

"My difficulties with the bill go far beyond what they could resolve," Collins said after she cast her NO vote. Tuesday’s vote puts Trump on the cusp of a major legislative victory and hands Thune the biggest win of his first six months on the job. 

Dubbed the “big, beautiful bill” by Trump, the revised legislation now heads back to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will scramble to get the numbers right to pass it before Trump's July 4 deadline. 

“The House will work quickly to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill that enacts President Trump’s full America First agenda by the Fourth of July," Johnson and his leadership team said in a joint statement Tuesday. "The American people gave us a clear mandate, and after four years of Democrat’s failure, we intend to deliver without delay." 

In a statement after the vote, Murkowski detailed the concessions for Alaska that she secured from the leadership of her party, which Rand Paul ridiculed as "pork and subsidies" for her state. Murkowski said she won tribal exemptions for new work requirements for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients. 

She secured a carveout for Alaska and a handful of other states that have high error rates in providing SNAP benefits, temporarily exempting them from SNAP cuts spelt out in the bill. But even though she voted for the bill, Murkowski called it an "awful process" and said she hopes the House makes changes to the Senate package. “We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination,” Murkowski said. “My hope is that House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” 

Senate bill changes 

Thune and his team made several eleventh-hour changes to appease holdouts like Murkowski and get the package over the finish line. A special fund for rural hospitals, which faced cuts in the bill, was boosted to $50 billion, up from $25 billion. The senate stripped out the provision to ban solar leasing for clean energy tax credits as also the  excise tax on wind and solar projects bringing some relief to non-conventional energy source producers.  

The conservatives' aggressive push to slash federal funding for Medicaid expansion in states ultimately did not make the final cut to the bill that was passed.  

The bill includes an extension of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts and provisions to temporarily eliminate taxes on tips and overtime pay. It includes a surge of new funding for the military and Trump's immigration enforcement and mass deportation plans. It aims to pay for some of that with hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and clean energy funding. And it would raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion. 

 To pass their bill, Republicans voted along party lines to set an aggressive new precedent that will have a lasting impact on the Senate. They used a trick known as “current policy baseline” to obscure the cost of extending 2017 tax cuts, essentially lowering the sticker price by $3.8 trillion. That tactic, backed by all 53 Republicans, hasn’t been used in the filibuster-proof process before, and it weakens the Senate’s 60 vote threshold.

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“This is the nuclear option,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., warning that it will “cut both ways” when the majority flips. 

Before the final revisions, the Senate bill had been projected to increase the national debt by $3.3 trillion over a decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which said it would reduce revenues by $4.5 trillion and cut spending by $1.2 trillion. In addition, 11.8 million people are projected to lose their health insurance by 2034 if it becomes law, the CBO said. 

The Senate's "Vote-a-Rama" session, in which members can offer an unlimited number of amendments to the legislation they are debating, dragged through the night into Tuesday morning. In total, senators cast votes on more than 45 amendments — a record. 

One of the more notable was a lopsided 99-1 vote to kill a provision — written by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the chair of the Commerce Committee — to establish a 10-year moratorium on state and local artificial intelligence regulations. GOP governors objected to the proposal, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., backed out of a compromise deal with Cruz on a five-year temporary ban on the regulations. 

Democrats, meanwhile, used the Vote-a-Rama to force a bevy of messaging votes to highlight how Republicans were protecting the super wealthy. They introduced four motions to let the 2017 tax cuts expire for people making $10 million, $100 million, $500 million and $1 billion a year, each of which failed by voice vote. 

“Americans will pay the price of this perfidy for generations,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters after Tuesday's vote. “Republicans are taking away your health care to give a tax break to billionaires.” 

Senators struggled to keep themselves occupied during the all-night session. 

Republicans noshed on pizza in their cloakroom just off the floor. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, read a book on his Kindle. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, did a Trump impression to GOP colleagues as he discussed Elon Musk’s social media posts bashing the bill. 

In the frigid chamber, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., wrapped herself in a blanket embroidered with the words “Wild Wonderful West Virginia.” And Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., recorded social media videos around the Capitol of things you won’t see on a normal tour. 

Hurdles in the House 

The legislation faces hurdles in the House, where Republicans can similarly spare only three votes. An earlier version passed by one vote, and the Senate changes have drawn criticism from some GOP lawmakers. 

They include the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, which is rebelling against the lack of spending cuts to pay for the bill. Rep. Nick LaLota, R-N.Y., came out against the scaled-back state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap in the bill, which would increase the limit to $40,000 for five years, then cut it back to $10,000. And Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif., who represents a swing district, slammed the Senate bill's more aggressive Medicaid funding cuts. 

"I've been clear from the start that I will not support a final reconciliation bill that makes harmful cuts to Medicaid, puts critical funding at risk, or threatens the stability of healthcare providers across CA-22," Valadao wrote on X over the weekend. 

In a Truth Social post, Trump urged the House GOP to "ignores its occasional 'GRANDSTANDERS' (You know who you are!)" and pass the bill. “To my GOP friends in the House: Stay UNITED, have fun, and Vote “YAY.” GOD BLESS YOU ALL!” he wrote.  

The revised package now heads back to the House, where Republican leaders hope to approve it and send it to Trump before a self-imposed July 4 deadline. But it faces hurdles. 

The sprawling package still faces challenges in the House due to deeper cuts to federal Medicaid spending, an accelerated phaseout of clean-energy tax breaks and changes to a deal to raise the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions. 

At least six House Republicans have threatened to oppose the Senate bill because of the changes to the House-passed legislation, and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is viewed as likely to vote NO because the package would add more than $3 trillion to the debt. 

A Fox News poll of 1,003 registered voters nationwide conducted this month found that 38 percent of voters favor the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, while 59 percent oppose it. 

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) held a call Monday afternoon to assuage GOP colleagues concerned about the deeper Medicaid cuts. Senators wrapped up work on the bill after working through the weekend and cutting off the first few days of the weeklong July 4 recess, forcing senators and staff to cancel flights and reschedule trips. 

Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, had to cancel the departure of his congressional delegation trip to Porto, Portugal, to attend a conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. 

After days of negotiations over the details of the legislation, Republican senators can claim a major legislative accomplishment, even though some Republicans are concerned about its future political impact. 

The bill would provide $160 billion for border security and immigration enforcement, $150 billion to boost the Pentagon’s budget and raise the debt ceiling by $5 trillion. 

It would extend the expiring 2017 Trump tax cuts, make popular corporate tax cuts permanent, and provide new tax relief to working-class Americans by shielding tipped income and overtime pay for hourly employees from taxation. 

It would allow people to deduct the interest on auto loans for American-made cars and create “Trump savings accounts” for newborns and children up to the age of 18. 

It would also phase out renewable energy tax credits that were the centerpiece of former President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. 

Thune scored the biggest legislative victory of his relatively new career as majority leader after Democrats used almost every procedural they could to derail the legislation. 

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) even forced Senate clerks to read the bill overnight Saturday and until midafternoon Sunday, a 16-hour endeavor. Thune hailed the bill as a crucial extension of the expiring 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which he called “one of the most successful economic policy pieces of legislation in history.” 

He warned that if it didn’t pass, families earning less than $400,000 per year would collectively see a $2.6 trillion tax increase, and small businesses would see $600 billion in tax increases. 

And he defended the more than $900 billion in Medicaid spending cuts in the bill, which have generated strong pushback within his own conference. 

He said the bill would “make sure that the people who are supposed to benefit from Medicaid do, and that it doesn’t go to people who shouldn’t benefit from Medicaid.” Schumer attacked the legislation as a generous tax giveaway to the rich that would disproportionately burden the poor by cutting hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. 

“It is destructive for Republicans to pass a bill like this at a time when people pay more for groceries, when people pay more for rent, pay more for child care, pay more for medication,” he said. “It makes no sense to reward the billionaire class and special interests at the expense of everyone else.” 

He said Democrats would make the bill’s Medicaid cuts a focus of the months ahead and the 2026 election. 

“Our battle is not over. We’re going to be fighting in July and August and throughout the year, reminding Americans when their hospitals close, when their health insurance is cut off,” he said. 

“We’re going to be in their states in every way, we’re going to organize, we’re going to have all the people who are hurt organized. You’re going to see a constant, constant battle in those states,” he said of the Democratic game plan for Senate battleground states over the next 16 months. 

The bill received strong pushback in recent weeks from both Republicans concerned about the deep cuts to Medicaid, such as Murkowski, Collins and Tillis, as well as Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kansas). 

GOP leaders eventually agreed to set up a $25 billion rural hospital relief fund, which was bumped up to $50 billion at the last minute, to allay concerns that the cuts could push scores of rural and small hospitals around the country into bankruptcy. 

Thune spoke consistently with Murkowski throughout the process, capped with a series of discussions on and near the floor on Monday night and Tuesday morning that helped get her to “YES.” He also helped bring conservatives on board after myriad conversions, individual discussions and conference meetings. 

“He’s gotten … marquee legislation for the president passed under his leadership. He’s gotten nominees at a record rate. He has empowered committee chairs,” said Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.). “This will be huge, and people know that he can get it done.” 

Murmurs of criticism of his approach were centered on his decision to start the vote-a-rama later Monday morning rather than pushing ahead earlier to ramp up pressure. In the end, Thune’s timeline worked well enough.  

“That was absolutely the right approach, right strategy,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.). “You just had to put the bill on the floor and start to find out where people really were in terms of how they were going to vote on it and start to uncover any other issue that may not have been seen before.” 

Murkowski notches key concessions — again 

It’s almost a time-honored tradition at this point: Senate GOP leadership looks to nab the support of Murkowski for a high-stakes bill, and she secures significant concessions for her home state to jump on board.  

That’s what happened again leading up to Tuesday morning. 

Much of the attention centered on a pair of items: a carve-out from changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) that will save her home state hundreds of millions of dollars, and a provision that would have increased federal Medicaid payments in Alaska. The latter piece did not make it in the final bill.  

The final scramble did see her nab $50 billion for a rural hospital fund, up from $25 billion that was originally included.  

Some other Alaska-specific items were added to the bill in the final weeks: a new tax exemption from fishers from western Alaska villages and a separate provision that gives some whaling captains in the state the ability to deduct $50,000 of their expenses, a fivefold increase. 

“She was very determined to make sure her state was taken care of,” said Senate Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), labeling her as “tough” but “reasonable.”  

“I like talking to people who know what the hell they’re talking about. She does,” he continued. “She knew that we were really trying to help her and her state.” 

That doesn’t mean everyone was ecstatic with the Alaska-specific inclusions. 

“The bill got more expensive to get her vote. There had to be a purchasing of her vote, so there was billions and billions of dollars given to her,” said Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) when asked about the concessions needed to win her support. “I think it was bad for the country because it added to the debt burden of the bill.” 

She was visibly displeased with that assessment. 

“My response is I have an obligation to the people of the state of Alaska, and I live up to that every single day. I fight for my state’s interests and I make sure that Alaskans are understood. I work hard to take care of a state that has more unique situations, more unique people, and it’s just different. When people suggest that federal dollars go to one of our 50 states in a ‘bailout,’ I find that offensive.”  

Republicans cross Trump at their own peril 

The battle over the “big, beautiful bill” also offered a political reminder: Crossing Trump comes with a high political price.  Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) announced on Sunday that he would not seek re-election next year, after losing his fight against Medicaid cuts in the package and voting against a procedural hurdle to move the bill forward.  

Tillis long stood as the Republican senator facing the toughest reelection prospects in 2026, especially if former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) takes the plunge.  

Trump only carried the state by 3 points last year, and the upcoming midterm cycle may not be friendly to Republicans. Navigating a viable path to reelection without enraging Trump proved too tall a challenge for Tillis, who warned Sunday night that Republicans would pay a price for the Medicaid cuts.  

Trump, who carried Republicans to a rare triumvirate and stakes much of his reputation on the mega bill, ripped Tillis on social media, threatening to recruit a primary challenger. But Tillis had already texted Trump that he would not seek reelection. 

The drama served as a warning sign to others on the ballot next year, including Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Paul, who also voted NO on Tuesday.  

There’s a reason why Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) didn’t oppose Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth despite their respective reservations.  

As the adage puts it: It’s better to be feared than loved, and that’s been the case so far with Trump’s push for his legislative agenda.  

Bumpy road ahead in the House 

The Senate’s road to passage was a difficult one. The challenges now facing House leaders are looking just as daunting. At least six House GOP members are prepared to vote “NO” on the Senate’s bill, presenting major troubles for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) after he pleaded with the upper chamber to leave much of the House bill intact. 

That did not happen. If House Republicans hope to meet the Independence Day deadline, they face little option outside of passing the Senate’s version. Any changes in the House would force the Senate to pass the bill once again, which senators want no part of after their grueling Vote-a-Rama this week.  

House GOP members are not happy with what the Senate has done to the bill. 

“On the text chains, on the phone calls, everyone is complaining,” one moderate House Republican told The Hill as Senate votes proceeded on Monday. “There’s a few little provisions people will say something positive about, but no one is happy with the Senate version.”  

“It’s amazing to a lot of us — how did it get so much f‑‑‑ing worse?” they added. 

The dynamics force Johnson — with the help of Trump — to attempt to pull another rabbit out of the hat, not for the first time this year. The Speaker can afford to lose three GOP members at most assuming full attendance and universal Democratic opposition. 

Will House conservatives follow Senate colleagues? 

Much of the drama in the days leading up to the Vote-a-Rama centered on a trio of conservatives — Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) — as they railed against the lack of spending cuts in the package and sought to cull Medicaid further.  

But when push came to shove, their amendment aimed at cutting an additional $313 billion in federal Medicaid spending couldn’t get the votes and never reached the floor.  

In the end, they got very little for voting “yes” despite making a lot of noise. With the bill now heading to the House, the question stands: Are House conservatives about to similarly get rolled? 

If the past is prologue, the answer would be yes.  

At every step of the process in the lower chamber, hard-liners — including many in the House Freedom Caucus — aired strong opposition to the legislation at hand, vowing to vote against it. But shortly before the vote, a call from Trump or a visit to the White House changed their tune. 

House conservatives are already grumbling. On Tuesday, shortly after the Senate passed their bill, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said he would oppose the measure at all steps of the process — in the House Rules Committee, to adopt the rule on the floor, and for final passage. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said he has “major problems” with the measure. 

But in the same comments, Roy recognized the pressure he will be under from the president to get the job done, especially as Friday’s deadline fast approaches. “If you look at the totality of this, I don’t believe this delivers what the president, what the administration, were working to deliver on,” Roy said. “I know why they’re going to lobby for it, I know why the president’s going to push for it. They want to see it get done, and I get it. But I think we have more work to do.”