Senate Republicans narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act Tuesday, sending it to the House for final approval following a 27-hour blitz of amendments.
The 51-50 vote — with Vice President JD Vance breaking the deadlock — puts Republicans on track to have the bill on President Trump’s desk by the self-imposed Fourth of July deadline, if enough House lawmakers stay on board.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina joined all 47 Democrats in voting “nay.”
“Today was a historic day for our country, and, we’re very excited to be a part of something that is gonna make America stronger, safer, and more prosperous,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters following the vote.
“This is historic in my time in Washington DC,” he added. “This is the first time we’ve done anything meaningful on entitlement reform.”
The megabill, which clocks in at nearly 900 pages, extends most of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts; reduces taxes on tips and overtime pay; and increases spending on defense, border security, and energy exploration while slashing entitlement outlays.
The legislative bundle had inched through Congress, overcoming criticism from all parts of the Republican Party.
After more than a month of deliberation, the Senate modified the House version of the legislation to extend business tax reductions, deepen cuts to Medicaid, increase the debt limit by $5 trillion, and eliminate a moratorium on state restrictions against artificial intelligence.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) emerged as the key swing vote, with GOP leadership leaning on her aggressively — and even trying to exempt Alaska from some spending cuts to woo her, but those amendments were blocked by Democrats.
“I had to look on balance, I had to look on balance,” she told reporters. “We do not have a perfect bill by any stretch of the imagination.”
“My hope is that the House is going to look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” --->READ MORE HERE
The Senate on Tuesday broke a record for the most votes taken during a vote-a-rama on President Trump’s proposed One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Just after 7 a.m., the Senate voted on the bill’s 45th vote on an amendment or procedural motion, topping the prior record of 44 during budget resolution voting in 2008.
Vote-a-rama is the unofficial term given to marathon, rapid-vote sessions in which senators can propose an unlimited number of amendments to pending legislation.
They usually occur during consideration of budget-related measures, with the first surfacing during the passage of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
The record was broken Tuesday with Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s proposed amendment to the OBBBA that would have slashed a provision allocating $100 million for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
His proposed amendment failed in a 50-50 vote, since ties don’t pass, and Veep JD Vance did not intervene and cast the tie-breaking vote for it.
But the entire megabill did pass the Senate around noon in a 51-50 vote, with Vance breaking the tie as Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) opposed it.
The amendments were used to hash out some of the last-minute differences between Republicans that needed to be addressed to get the megabill across the finish line.
One issue that threatened to derail passage of the megabill had been a 10-year moratorium on states regulating artificial intelligence. --->READ MORE HERE
If you like what you see, please "Like" and/or Follow us on FACEBOOK here, GETTR here, and TWITTER here.
No comments:
Post a Comment