In a surprising development, the U.S. Senate narrowly passed President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” with a vote of 51 to 50. Vice President J.D. Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. This important legislative win for the Trump administration was largely achieved due to GOP Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski’s crucial “yes” vote. However, just moments after supporting the bill, she openly criticized the legislation she had helped pass.
While Murkowski isn’t the first person to vote for the bill despite not supporting it, she described her vote as “agonizing,” which has sparked a wave of questions and criticisms from both political parties, especially regarding her reasons for backing a bill that she admitted was flawed and required further improvement. She told reporters like Daily Beast, “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.”
The process of getting the bill approved in the Senate involved intense negotiations and last-minute changes. In the days leading up to the vote, Senator Murkowski stood as a significant Republican holdout, raising serious concerns about how the proposed cuts to healthcare and food assistance programs would negatively affect her home state of Alaska.
Senator passes bill despite not believing in it
With the narrow majority the Republican party held in the Senate, her vote became critical for the bill’s passage. Acknowledging the importance of her support, Republican Senate leaders worked diligently in the final hours to make adjustments to the bill to address her concerns.
These efforts resulted in several specific changes to the legislation. One key modification affected the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, known as SNAP. After encountering obstacles with an initial exclusion for states like Alaska, Senate Republicans successfully altered a provision that would delay cuts to food assistance for states that experience high error rates, including Alaska. Furthermore, while an initial special Medicaid provision for Alaska was ultimately removed from the bill, Senate Republicans increased the proposed rural hospital funding from $25 billion to $50 billion.
NEW: Sen. Lisa Murkowski stares me down for more than 10 secs after I ask her to respond to Sen. Rand Paul’s critique of the deal she struck to get her to a YES and pass the OBBB.
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) July 1, 2025
“Do I like this bill? No. But I tried to take care of Alaska’s interests.”
w/ @frankthorp pic.twitter.com/d8mku7RDct
This modification was designed to satisfy senators like Murkowski, who had expressed serious concerns about cuts to health insurance for low-income Americans. Additionally, a disputed excise tax on wind and solar energy projects was taken out of the bill, a change that Murkowski strongly supported.
Even with these adjustments, Senator Murkowski was not fully satisfied with the final bill. Murkowski also revealed that she had encouraged the White House to seek a more thorough legislative process instead of sticking to the president’s “artificial” timeline of getting the bill signed by the Fourth of July.
