Republican House takes up Senate version of Trump's controversial big bill

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Jul 2, 2025

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The Republican-led House of Representatives on Wednesday started considering the Senate’s version of President Donald Trump’s controversial budget bill in hopes of passing it ahead of a self-proclaimed July 4 deadline.

With just a narrow edge, GOP leaders hope to jam the retooled Big Beautiful Bill including even bigger tax and spending cuts through the House to deliver a massive political win for Trump.

“Republicans will keep the promises we made. We look forward to delivering the One Big Beautiful Bill to the President’s desk by July 4th,” House Speaker Mike Johnson tweeted Wednesday.

House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, denounced the bill as a shameless giveaway to the rich that will take away health insurance coverage for 11 million Americans and food assistance from millions of poor kids.

“Democrats are going to do everything we can for the next few hours, today, tomorrow, for the balance of this week and beyond to stop this bill from ever becoming law,” Jeffries said.

The rush to pass the bill comes over the opposition of several factions of Republican lawmakers, most notably fiscal budget hawks who object to exploding the debt by an estimated $3.3 trillion. Smaller groups of relatively moderate GOP members oppose the draconian cuts to Medicaid and food stamps.

Moving forward without locking down their support is a gamble, especially with the GOP holding just a 220-212 advantage with two Republicans who already voted against the previous version.

In a warning sign of possible resistance, two GOP members voted against a resolution setting up terms for debating Trump’s bill in the House Rules Committee after midnight Wednesday morning.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-Louisiana, warned GOP leaders are not entertaining the possibility of making changes to the bill before the final vote.

“One more change could end up being what collapses the entire thing,” Scalise said.

With treacherous weather hampering flights into Washington, a handful of House members on both sides of the aisle were forced to hit the road overnight to make it in time to vote on the bill.

The bill would extend and make permanent Trump’s 2017 tax breaks, mostly for the wealthy and businesses, plus some new ones Trump promised during his campaign like no tax on tips or overtime. In all, the legislation contains about $4.5 trillion in tax cuts over 10 years.

It also provides about $350 billion for defense and Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Republicans pay for it with drastic spending cuts to Medicaid and food assistance, plus ballooning the federal debt that many of them have spent their careers railing against.