Congressional Debates Made Approval Of Budget Bill An Uphill Battle
On Independence Day, President Donald Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill into law, seeing through a victory that fulfills many of his campaign promises.
The path to this moment was fraught with division.
In the month since the so-called One, Big, Beautiful Bill was passed by the House of Representatives, the Republican-backed budget bill faced an uphill battle in the Senate and a return visit to the House.
With a deadline of approving a budget by mid-July — and a Republican-imposed deadline of July 4 — the pressure was on to avoid a government shutdown.
Intensifying the pressure, President Donald Trump pushed this as an important part of his presidential mandate, but the fear that the bill would increase the national debt proved a formidable hurdle.
On Tuesday, July 1, the Senate voted 51-50 to approve the budget bill, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.
Senators Susan Collins, R-ME; Rand Paul, R-KY; and Thom Tillis, R-NC, voted with Democrats, who were unified in their rejection of the bill.
This followed the House narrowly approving the bill on May 22, voting 215-214.
After the Senate passed the bill, it returned to the House to have its amendments approved. There, history was made as Republican holdouts on the adoption of the bill compelled a procedural vote to last seven hours and 23 minutes.
After all 220 Republicans eventually passed the procedural vote, minutes later in the evening of July 2, a measure to open the bill up for debate in the House was stalled by Republican holdouts again.
Ultimately, after five hours of voting being open, debate of the bill was authorized in a vote of 219-213 around 3:30 a.m. on July 3, with four Republicans switching their vote to support the debate.
A vote was expected by 6:30 a.m., but Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, delivered an eight hour and 32 minute speech, which he started at 4:53 a.m. and concluded just before 2 p.m. — a new record for the longest speech delivered in the House.
Shortly after Jeffries’ speech, the House voted on the bill, approving it in a vote of 218-214.
Two Republicans, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-PA; and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-KY, voted against the bill, aligning themselves with the Democrats, who unanimously opposed it.
Trump Signs The Bill
Following a July 3 rally in Iowa — where President Donald Trump celebrated the Congressional victory of the largely partisan passing of the One, Big Beautiful Bill — the president saved signing the bill for a special day: Independence Day.
From the South Lawn of the White House on July 4, Trump signed the budget bill into law, restoring the tax cuts he oversaw during his first term, in 2017.
“It’s the biggest bill of its type in history,” Trump said. “Actually, I liked it because we had so much in there that, no matter who you are, there’s something in that bill that would make your congressman or your senator, or your congresswoman, much more importantly raise their hands and support.”
He went on to tout his 2024 election victory, describing it as a mandate.
“Promises made, promises kept,” he said, referring to one of his presidential campaign slogans. “This is a triumph of democracy on the birthday of democracy.”
Speaking on the bill, Trump said, “It includes the largest tax cut in American history, the largest spending cut, $1.7 trillion … You have the biggest tax cut, the biggest spending cut, the largest border security investment in American history … and now we’re going to modernize, and re-modernize, our military.”
This signing ceremony coincided with a picnic for military families on the lawn of the White House. Two B-2 bombers, like the seven which were utilized by the United States in the June 21 bombing of the three nuclear sites in Iran, did a flyover at the picnic before the bill was signed.
The military families in attendance at the bill signing were from the airbase in Missouri where the B-2 bomber pilots from Operation Midnight Hammer are stationed.
Watch the full bill signing, here:
What’s In The Bill?
One of the primary objectives of the One, Big, Beautiful Bill is the goal of reinstating Trump’s tax cuts from his first term, making them permanent.
“The President’s legislation will put more than $10,000 a year back in the pockets of typical hardworking families,” the White House wrote in its “Myth vs. Fact” breakdown of the budget bill.
Further, there were also three promises made by Trump regarding the bill: end tax on tips, end tax on overtime, and end tax on Social Security.
Of those, the bill met the first two promises, with no tax on tips and overtime being a popular initiative with bipartisan appeal. However, regarding tax on Social Security, the bill only reduced taxes paid by seniors.
Still, the bill does provide an additional deduction for seniors, aged 65 and over (making under $75,000 if filing single, or less than $150,000 if filing jointly), allowing them to be eligible for a new $4,000 deduction.
There are also provisions for families with young children.
Beyond renewing the Trump child credit rate of $2,000 per dependent child, it will add an additional $500, bringing the total child credit to $2,500.
In a June 28 statement from the White House, the following was said:
“[The budget bill will] bring back jobs and bolster American manufacturing by making bonus depreciation permanent and providing full expensing for new factories and factory improvements. In addition, the bill makes permanent and enhances Opportunity Zones to continue the private sector driven revitalization of distressed communities across America.”
Democrat Concerns
On Wednesday, July 2, over 100 Democratic members of the House made a largely symbolic gesture ahead of a Republican-led vote to amend the procedural rules before voting on the budget bill.
Each requested the following: “Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to amend the rules to make an order the amendment at the desk that protects against any cuts to Medicaid and to SNAP.”
Each of these efforts were denied, as the requests were made without the time on the floor being yielded for that purpose.
These representatives’ concerns stem from the bill having measures to eliminate fraudulent access to Medicaid and SNAP, which stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It has been an area of contention between Republicans and Democrats if illegal migrants had been able to access either programs.
Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, described the budget bill as “an immoral document” in his July 3 marathon speech — which lasted over eight hours — during the House’s debate of the bill ahead of its vote.
Of the bill, Jeffries also wrote on X:
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-MN, wrote of the bill:
Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, posted:
Responding to these concerns and more, Rep. Tim Burchett, R-TN, called out CNN on July 2 for “scaring America” regarding what is in the budget bill, saying:
National Debt And Other Debates
“I think a bill can be big or it can be beautiful, but I don’t know if it can be both,” Elon Musk told CBS Sunday Morning in the week leading up to his final day as a Special Government Employee, on May 30, overseeing the start of the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE.
Musk’s concern with the bill has been, in part, that it would be working against any progress made by DOGE to cut government spending.
Prior to the passing of this bill, the debt ceiling is over $36 trillion.
Memorably, Musk and Trump’s differing views on the budget bill inspired a significant public feud between the two, with Musk alleging on June 5 that Trump is “in the Epstein files.”
By June 11, Musk said on X, formerly Twitter, “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”
Within the Senate, there have been several Republican members who saw the increase to the debt ceiling as a nonstarter.
For example, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) criticized the bill for, in its final section, raising the debt ceiling by $4 trillion.
“[Raising the debt ceiling] is enough for me not to support the bill, even though I support large segments of the bill,” Paul said in an interview with The National News Desk on May 15. “My fear is that really true cutting is not going to happen.”
Senator Thom Tillis, R-NC, voiced his opposition to the bill on June 28, summarizing his concerns on X, saying, “The Senate version of the One Big Beautiful bill contains significant changes to Medicaid that would be devastating to North Carolina, and I cannot support it. The Senate should go back to the House’s commonsense approach to Medicaid reform to enact work requirements while protecting care for those who truly need it.”
After receiving blowback from Trump, Tillis announced the next day he would be retiring at the end of his term.
