House passes Trump's 'big, beautiful' megabill

(The Hill) – The House passed the GOP-backed "big, beautiful bill" on Thursday. The final vote of 218–214 was largely along party lines, with opposition from only two Republicans.

The Senate had passed the same bill on Tuesday, so the legislation will head directly to President Trump’s desk, where he’s expected to sign it with a ceremonial flourish on Independence Day.

The move marks a major win for Trump and his domestic policy agenda. The bill includes sweeping tax cuts, a crackdown on immigration, a boost in energy production and huge cuts in Medicaid — and could come to be the defining legislation of Trump’s second term.

“With one big, beautiful bill, we are gonna make this country stronger, safer and more prosperous than ever before, and every American is going to benefit from that,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said during his remarks on the House floor before the vote. “Today we are laying a key cornerstone of America’s new golden age.”

House Republicans had earlier advanced their “big, beautiful bill” full of President Donald Trump’s legislative priorities on Thursday morning, overcoming a key procedural hurdle after a dramatic vote that GOP leaders left open for hours to quell an internal revolt.

The chamber voted 219-213 to adopt a rule governing debate on Trump’s domestic agenda, opening up discussion on the megabill and teeing up a final vote on the package.

The earlier vote was something of a gamble for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), who has faced opposition to the legislation from various corners of his ideologically diverse conference. Heading into the rule vote, conservatives had warned that they would sink the procedural measure unless it was delayed beyond Wednesday. 

Johnson called their bluff, held the vote open for more than five hours, and then adopted the rule after winning enough support — an effort that got a big boost from Trump, who spoke with some of the holdouts during the long, midnight impasse.

The chamber adopted the rule after a whirlwind of an afternoon on Capitol Hill, which saw a different procedural vote stall for more than seven hours as holdouts huddled with Johnson and White House aides behind closed doors. It marked the longest vote in House history. 

Hardline conservatives had previously hammered the “big, beautiful bill" over concerns that it cuts too little in federal spending and piles too much onto the national debt. Those concerns only grew after the package returned from the Senate, which had altered the initial House bill in ways that increased deficit spending. 

On Wednesday morning, a number of hardline conservatives had vowed to vote against the rule if it came to the floor. By Wednesday evening, those warnings had softened slightly. But shortly before the House rule hit the floor, several spending hawks told reporters that if Johnson called the vote they would abstain, requesting more time to learn the details of the Senate-passed bill. 

The Speaker called the vote anyway, successfully calling their bluff and allowing the tenuous process to move forward.

The passage of the bill on Thursday afternoon followed a marathon, historic speech by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who commandeered the chamber for 8 hours and 44 minutes to rail against the GOP’s megabill and delay the final vote — surpassing the previous record of 8 hours and 32 minutes set by then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in 2021 as a way to delay action on the Democrats’ social spending and climate package.

At its core, the package's priority is $4.5 trillion in tax breaks enacted in 2017 during Trump's first term that would expire if Congress failed to act, along with new ones. This includes allowing workers to deduct tips and overtime pay, and a $6,000 deduction for most older adults earning less than $75,000 a year.

There's also a hefty investment, some $350 billion, in national security and Trump's deportation agenda and to help develop the “Golden Dome” defensive system over the U.S.

To help offset the lost tax revenue, the package includes $1.2 trillion in cutbacks to the Medicaid health care and food stamps, largely by imposing new work requirements, including for some parents and older people, and a major rollback of green energy tax credits.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates the package will add $3.3 trillion to the deficit over the decade and 11.8 million more people will go without health coverage.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.