President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” passed in the House of Representatives by the slimmest of margins early Thursday morning after an aggressive pressure campaign by the president.
The vote was 215-214.
Only three Republicans bucked the majority: Reps. Warren Davidson of Ohio and Thomas Massie of Kentucky voting “no” and Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris of Maryland voting “present.”
The early morning vote around 6:30 am came after passage of the legislation through the Rules Committee in the dead of night. That vote came after the committee spent more than 24 hours of deliberation. Conservatives and Republicans from swing districts expressed their strong objections to the bill.
Conservatives sought even steeper cuts and changes to Medicaid, while Republicans from states with Democratic governments wanted to restore a tax deduction.
The Rules Committee first convened at 1 a.m. on Wednesday morning, and members voted on numerous amendments to the legislation.
But Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus voiced their frustrations that the bill did not go far enough on spending cuts, despite the fact they won a major concession in moving up work requirements for Medicaid.
Ahead of the final vote, Roy groused about the changes.
“I mean, it's better,” Roy told The Independent before the final vote. “It could still be better.”
The objections led to a last-minute meeting at the White House with Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson and members of the Freedom Caucus.
But a series of last-minute deals were forged to satisfy both Republicans in swing districts and hardline conservatives.
The final deal moved up Medicaid work requirements from being enacted in 2029 to December 31, 2026. In addition, Medicaid dollars available for gender-affirming care for transgender youth will be blocked for gender-affirming care for any Medicaid recipient.
The bill also provides an additional $12 billion for policing the U.S.-Mexico border. The bill also removes a tax on gun silencers, a demand from Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde.
But the changes were not enough to satisfy Massie, a libertarian Republican, who opposed the bill. Massie said he had not changed his vote since he opposed the 2017 Trump tax cuts.
“It wasn't really paid for,” Massie, who had a pinned digital clock that showed the national debt going up, told told The Independent. “it set up forth a budget that caused a lot of big deficits, right?”
The legislation would also mandate a quicker-than-planned phaseout of some of the renewable energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act – former President Joe Biden’s signature environmental legislation.
The bill also changed the name of “MAGA Accounts” – a tax-advantaged account for children eight years old and younger and for children born between 2025 and 2028 – to “Trump Accounts.”
The shuttle negotiations coordinated by Johnson, a strident conservative, and Trump to pressure conservatives showed the urgency to pass the president’s signature piece of legislation.
Despite the deal struck between Johnson and Democrats in states like New York, the amendment detailing the changes was not made available to the public for much of the hearing.
On Tuesday morning, Trump visited the Capitol to make the case for the passage of the bill. He insisted that the legislation would not make sweeping changes to Medicaid, the program meant for poor people, pregnant women, children, and people with disabilities, as well as many elderly in nursing homes.
“We're not doing any cutting of anything meaningful,” he insisted then. “The only thing we're cutting is waste, fraud, and abuse.”
But an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that if Congress passed all the changes put in place during the mark-ups in committee, 7.6 million people could lose their Medicaid coverage, and an additional 3.1 million could lose coverage they receive through the 2010 health-care law, known as the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare.
In addition, CBO found that if the bill passed, the bottom 10 percent of US households would lose 4 percent of their income in 2033 as the incomes of the top 10 percent of households would increase by 2 percent in 2033.
Democrats slammed the rushed process.
“It's clear that they know that gutting Medicaid is horrible for the country,” New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent.
“For Republicans, Democrats, Independents alike. But they are laser-focused on giving these tax breaks to billionaires and cutting Medicaid.”
Even some Republicans objected to holding the initial hearing at 1 am Wednesday morning.
“I don't think that's the right way to do business,” Roy told The Independent. Roy would miss the Rules Committee vote on Wednesday evening, but would vote for the rule to set up the final vote early Thursday morning.
The legislation would ramp up spending for the U.S. military, immigration enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border and oil drilling. It would also extend the 2017 tax cuts that Trump signed into law.
With only 220 seats, Republicans can only risk losing a handful of votes.
Senate Republicans, who have a slim majority of 53 seats, plan to pass the legislation under the process of reconciliation, with strict rules that allow for a bill to avoid a filibuster as long as it relates to the budget.
Before the vote, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham of South Carolina passed by the House on his way home. Graham called the bill a “step in the right direction.
“Don’t really know yet, we’ll find out what they pass,” Graham told The Independent.
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