WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans finally pushed a mammoth budget reconciliation bill through their chamber on Tuesday over Democratic objections, after settling internal GOP disputes over Medicaid cuts, energy tax credits and more.

In concluding a marathon vote-a-rama that stretched for about 27 hours starting at 9 a.m. Monday morning, the Senate passed its version of what President Donald Trump dubbed his “one big, beautiful bill” on a mostly party-line vote of 51-50. Vice President JD Vance broke the tie, after taking part in last-minute negotiations to get things moving.

Three Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the measure: deficit hawk Rand Paul of Kentucky; retiring Thom Tillis of North Carolina; and Maine’s Susan Collins, who’s now the most endangered GOP incumbent in next year’s midterms after Tillis’ decision.

If just one more Republican voted “no,” it would have sank the bill. That’s why GOP leaders invested so much time and energy in wooing Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who finally voted for it after many hours of cajoling.

There was one piece of bad news for Trump in the final minutes of debate: Democrats struck the bill’s official title — the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — on a “Byrd rule” point of order given the language had no budgetary impact.

Bigger deficits

The revised bill now heads back to the House, where prospects for final passage remain uncertain at best. Hard-line House conservatives have railed against the Senate’s changes to a bill that passed the House by a single vote last month.

House leaders have instructed members to return to Washington for votes as early as Wednesday morning in an effort to send the measure to Trump’s desk by a self-imposed July Fourth deadline.

But it’s hardly clear that Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., will have enough votes to rubber-stamp the Senate’s changes to meet that deadline.

If he doesn’t, more time will be required to negotiate revisions. Given all that’s been happening on Capitol Hill, Trump appeared to soften on his deadline a bit on Tuesday morning. “I’d love to do July Fourth, but I think it’s very hard to do July Fourth,” the president told reporters.

The filibuster-proof package, which Democrats have rallied against, would extend the expiring tax cuts that Trump signed into law in 2017, while offering new tax breaks including on tips and overtime pay.

It would provide about $320 billion in new money for the military and for immigration and border enforcement, while making deep cuts to the social safety net, including Medicaid and food stamps. The measure also would increase the nation’s $36.1 trillion debt limit by $5 trillion — enough to get past next year’s midterm elections.

Fiscal hawks have decried the bill for inadequate spending cuts that they say would do little to stem the tide of rising deficits already baked into budget projections.

But according to the “current policy” baseline Republicans have directed scorekeepers to use, the $3.8 trillion cost of extending the 2017 tax cuts would be effectively wiped away. Using that scoring method, the Congressional Budget Office said the bill would actually save more than $500 billion over a decade after accounting for spending cuts.

The CBO’s traditional scoring method, by contrast, paints a grimmer picture, with deficits projected to increase by $3.25 trillion over 10 years. That’s $650 billion more than the limit House Freedom Caucus and other conservative members negotiated with House GOP leaders, which is already creating whip count issues in that chamber.

“The Senate must make major changes and should at least be in the ballpark of compliance with the agreed upon House budget framework,” the Freedom Caucus said in a statement. “Republicans must do better.”

The House Rules Committee was expected to meet at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday to set the terms for floor debate.

House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., who was on the Senate side Tuesday morning, wouldn’t comment on his discussions, saying only that he was confident Republicans would soon get a bill to the president’s desk.

Hard-fought win

The Senate’s affirmative vote marked a victory for Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., who has struggled to unify his conference around a bill that members from both wings of his party found reasons to dislike. Despite defections, Thune managed to hold onto several wavering senators who had threatened to break ranks.

In particular, Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Mike Lee of Utah, who wanted deeper spending cuts, pushed an amendment to scale back the federal cost share of Medicaid enrollees who joined under the expansion provided by the 2010 health care overhaul. That amendment never had a chance of being adopted, however, and they decided not to offer it.

And the votes of GOP centrists Murkowski and Collins were likewise up for grabs. Their support for the bill was put further at risk after the Senate parliamentarian blessed a provision in the bill that would bar Planned Parenthood and other family planning clinics from receiving Medicaid funds.

They voted with the Democrats on unsuccessful procedural motion that would have allowed them to take up an amendment to strike the provision.

Collins also sought an amendment designed to lessen the blow of Medicaid cuts by doubling the size of a new rural hospital fund from $25 billion to $50 billion. The cost would be offset by raising the top marginal tax rate from 37% to 39.6% for incomes above $25 million for individuals and $50 million for married couples.

Senators blocked the amendment with a procedural challenge. Nonetheless, GOP leaders agreed in the final “wraparound” substitute amendment to the bill to double the hospital fund to $50 billion, with $10 billion a year for five years.

Collins still voted “no,” but with Murkowski the deciding vote, it didn’t matter.

Alaska in focus

Murkowski became the key focus of GOP leaders in the vote-a-rama’s final stages.

GOP leaders spent hours negotiating with Murkowski, and the parliamentarian, over language added to the bill that would shield Alaska, as well as Hawaii, from some of the measure’s financial impact.

The changes would exempt “noncontiguous” states from a new Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program cost-share requirement if they meet certain conditions, like “implementing a corrective action plan” for their high SNAP payment error rates.

Late adds would also provide a higher federal Medicaid matching rate for certain “high-poverty states,” namely Alaska and Hawaii, as well as a Medicare payment increase for hospital outpatient departments in the two states.

But Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough advised that the health care provisions would violate the Byrd rule, and she had similar issues with the SNAP waivers but a final opinion hadn’t been made public.

Finally, early Tuesday a new version of the cost-share waiver language that was broader and benefited additional states won the parliamentarian’s approval. The new text resolves the Byrd issue by delaying implementation of the matching funds requirement for states with the highest SNAP payment error rates.

That language would benefit Alaska, nine other states and the District of Columbia — but not Hawaii — if similar payment error rates as last year are found for fiscal 2025.

The Medicaid and Medicare provisions, worth $6.7 billion to Alaska and Hawaii, were dropped from the final text, however.

Thune, Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., Senate Finance Chairman Michael D. Crapo, R-Idaho, and Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, all were seen huddling with Murkowski on and off for several hours.

The situation with Murkowski was so fraught that even Paul’s vote appeared to come back into play for a time. He’d long been written off as a staunch “no” vote given his concerns about the bill’s $5 trillion debt limit increase, saying he’d only back the measure if they reduced that figure to $500 billion.

Still, Paul was seen going in and out of Thune’s office overnight, and Vance spoke to him upon the vice president’s arrival back at the Capitol on Tuesday morning.

Ultimately Paul couldn’t be convinced, and the debt ceiling increase remained at $5 trillion.

AI language stripped

Before passage, Commerce Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, agreed to withdraw a compromise amendment he’d prepared with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on pausing state artificial intelligence regulations.

They’d initially agreed to a shorter pause — 5 years instead of 10 — and exemptions for certain state regulations including a Tennessee law cracking down on the use of generative AI to impersonate an artist’s voice and likeness. But loopholes in the language drew an outcry from Big Tech critics and Blackburn backed out of the deal.

Cruz offered and then withdrew the amendment, saying he’d accept Blackburn’s amendment with Commerce ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., to strike the underlying AI provisions. Blackburn asked for a roll call vote anyway, and the amendment was adopted, 99-1. The only “no” vote was Tillis.

Republicans had a bit of a scare on another amendment. Sen. Mazie K. Hirono, D-Hawaii, sought to strike a new tax credit for individuals who contribute to nonprofits that fund scholarships for elementary and secondary school states.

Blasting the provision as a $4 billion annual school voucher program that would siphon resources from public schools, Democrats won three votes from the GOP side of the aisle: Murkowski, Collins and Deb Fischer of Nebraska. That led to a 50-50 deadlock, and Hirono’s amendment was defeated.

Another tie vote came on an amendment by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., that would have pumped $63 million into aviation safety projects at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, while cutting $85 million in the bill that would be used to transfer the retired space shuttle Discovery to a new home in Houston. The Discovery is currently on display in Chantilly, Va.

Collins, Murkowski, and Jerry Moran of Kansas crossed the aisle to vote with Warner and his Democratic colleagues.

Also a tie vote: an amendment from Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., to strike $100 million in the bill for the Office of Management and Budget “for purposes of finding budget and accounting efficiencies in the executive branch.” Paul, Collins and Murkowski voted for it on the GOP side.

Two GOP amendments were adopted before passage by voice vote.

One, from Joni Ernst of Iowa, would bar unemployment insurance benefits for individuals making more than $1 million. The other, from Louisiana’s John Kennedy, would move up the start date of a new provision to require that Medicaid verify whether a beneficiary is still alive before distributing benefits.

--------

—Olivia M. Bridges, Aidan Quigley, Paul M. Krawzak and Sandhya Raman contributed to this report.

©2025 CQ-Roll Call, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Visit cqrollcall.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.