The Senate aspect of the U.S. Capitol is seen in Washington, D.C., early Monday, June 30, 2025, forward of a last vote on President Trump’s signature home coverage invoice.
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J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Senate Republicans have handed President Trump’s signature home coverage invoice, setting the stage for a last vote within the Home on laws that may reduce trillions of {dollars} in taxes whereas scaling again spending on Medicaid, meals help and clear power applications.
The ultimate vote was 51-50 with Vice President JD Vance breaking a tie. Three Republicans broke ranks and voted towards the invoice: Susan Collins of Maine, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Kentucky’s Rand Paul. The invoice now heads to the Home, the place some GOP lawmakers are already signaling main objections.
Tuesday’s vote capped weeks of contentious negotiations between fiscal hawks who needed deeper spending cuts, and a handful of different Republicans who expressed considerations that cuts within the invoice may have deep impacts throughout the nation.
The invoice would lengthen the tax cuts that had been handed by Republicans in 2017, stopping a possible hike in charges on the finish of this yr when the present provisions are set to run out. Republicans are offsetting a few of these prices with cuts to the Supplemental Vitamin Help Program, or SNAP, together with main modifications to Medicaid, the joint federal and state program that gives well being look after roughly 70 million low-income, aged and disabled People. Early estimates recommend round 11 million individuals may lose protection underneath the GOP invoice.
Dealing with rising strain from the White Home, Republicans had been capable of strike a fragile stability and cross the invoice with simply days to go earlier than a self-imposed July 4 deadline. The vote as soon as once more highlighted President Trump’s potential to unify fractious wings contained in the GOP.
“With this laws, we’re fulfilling the mandate we had been entrusted with final November and setting our nation and the American individuals as much as be safer, stronger and extra affluent,” mentioned Senate Majority Chief John Thune, R-S.D., after the vote.
Senate Majority Chief John Thune, R-S.D., walks to the Senate flooring throughout in a single day votes on the U.S. Capitol on July 1.
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Al Drago/Getty Photos
Whilst Republicans celebrated the vote, the GOP megabill nonetheless faces a steep climb earlier than reaching the president’s desk.
To get the invoice via, Republicans turned to a particular price range instrument often called reconciliation. By doing so, the occasion was capable of sidestep a Democratic filibuster and cross the invoice with a easy majority. However the laws additionally wanted to suit strict Senate guidelines that require the entire parts to be primarily associated to the price range and spending. That meant many GOP priorities had been stripped from the laws earlier than the ultimate vote.
Republicans within the Home and Senate should agree on equivalent variations of the plan earlier than sending the laws to Trump for his signature. The Senate model could not fulfill the various divided factions of the slender GOP majority within the Home.
Getting the Senate invoice via the Home with out additional modifications shall be a vital check for Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.. For weeks, Johnson has pleaded with the Senate to maintain any modifications to a minimal. He was capable of squeak the invoice via by a single vote the primary time — relying closely on President Trump to win over last-minute holdouts. With Republicans clinging to a razor-thin majority within the Home, their margin for error shall be small.
Following the Senate vote, Johnson mentioned in a press release that the Home would work shortly to cross the invoice by the Fourth of July.
“The American individuals gave us a transparent mandate, and after 4 years of Democrat failure, we intend to ship at once,” Johnson mentioned.
Tax cuts paired with cuts to the social security internet
The broad outlines of the Senate measure largely mirror the model of the invoice that Home Republicans handed in Might. Each would spend trillions to increase the 2017 tax cuts whereas steering more cash to the army and immigration enforcement. Each would additionally make good on a number of of Trump’s marketing campaign pledges, together with no taxes on additional time or suggestions, albeit on a brief foundation.
However the two chambers are break up over methods to pay for that spending, with some Home Republicans flatly calling modifications made by the Senate a non-starter for them.
One of many greatest areas focused for financial savings is Medicaid. Home Republicans sought to trim the invoice’s price ticket, partly, via new work necessities for childless adults with out disabilities. In search of further financial savings, the Senate plan expands these necessities to the dad and mom of older kids.
The Senate additionally moved to rein in what are often called supplier taxes — a tax states have used to safe extra federal matching {dollars} for Medicaid. To alleviate lawmakers who mentioned the change risked the collapse of many rural hospitals, the Senate finally included a brand new $50 billion fund to help rural hospitals. That program would start in 2026 and funds could be unfold out over 5 years.
Following the vote, Collins mentioned she was unable to help the laws even after leaders included more cash to help rural hospitals.
“I strongly help extending the tax reduction for households and small companies,” Collins wrote in a press release. “My vote towards this invoice stems primarily from the dangerous affect it should have on Medicaid, affecting low-income households and rural well being care suppliers like our hospitals and nursing houses.”
Paul mentioned he may have supported the bundle had it not included a provision to raise the nation’s borrowing authority by $5 trillion. And he derided modifications that had been made to win the help of Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. These included a reprieve for her state from new work necessities to qualify for the Supplemental Vitamin Help Program, or SNAP, which advantages greater than 40 million low-income People.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., stroll towards the Senate flooring after lawmakers stayed in session all through the night time forward of a Tuesday vote on the GOP megabill. Murkowski referred to as the vote “agonizing.”
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Andrew Harnik/Getty Photos
“The invoice bought dearer to get her vote,” Paul mentioned as he left the Senate flooring. “There needed to be a buying of her vote.”
Murkowski informed reporters the vote was “agonizing,” saying she “struggled mightily with the affect on essentially the most susceptible on this nation.”
“I needed to look on stability, as a result of the individuals in my state are those that I put first. We do not need an ideal invoice by any stretch of the creativeness,” Murkowski mentioned. “My hope is that the Home goes to take a look at this and acknowledge that we’re not there but.”
The sweeping invoice — clocking in at practically 1,000 pages — would carry modifications throughout a big selection of coverage areas. Along with spending cuts for SNAP, the invoice commits billions to frame safety, overhauls the federal scholar mortgage program, and ends the $7,500 credit score for purchasing an electrical automobile handed as a part of former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Discount Act.
Deficit tensions
One other pressure level is how a lot to raise the debt ceiling. The Home accredited a $4 trillion hike — a determine that in itself was a troublesome promote for fiscal hawks involved about authorities spending. The Senate opted for $5 trillion. Lifting the debt restrict does not authorize new spending. Slightly, it permits the federal government to pay for applications Congress has already approved. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has informed Congress that with out motion, the U.S. shall be liable to a doubtlessly catastrophic default on its debt as early as August.
The nonpartisan Congressional Finances Workplace discovered that the Senate invoice would add greater than $3 trillion to the deficit over the following 10 years. Extending the 2017 tax cuts made up the majority of the associated fee however different modifications have added to the underside line.
The Senate modified how the invoice handles a deduction for state and native taxes that was pivotal to securing the votes of GOP lawmakers within the Home from blue states with excessive taxes. The SALT cap, because the deduction is thought, went from $10,000 to $40,000 within the Home for married {couples} with incomes as much as $500,000. The Senate plan retains that new threshold in place, however the provision would expire after 2028.
The invoice additionally targets different clear power credit handed as a part of the IRA. The Senate agreed to roll again credit for wind and photo voltaic — cuts that had been included within the Home bundle to assist win over fiscal hawks from the ultra-conservative Home Freedom Caucus. That plan would halt roughly $522 billion in investments, lots of that are based mostly in purple states.
Senate Democrats have been united in opposing the invoice, and tried to delay the eventual vote by requesting the total invoice be learn on the Senate flooring over the weekend. They dominated proceedings on Monday with a stream of proposed amendments that Republicans finally struck down.
In a press convention after the vote, Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., railed towards the invoice and mentioned Democrats would proceed to focus on what they see as damaging penalties introduced by it.
“The American individuals will bear in mind the Republican betrayal,” Schumer mentioned. “People can pay the value for this perfidy for generations.”
