Boyed by VP Vance vote, Senate approves spending bill
Benjamin Weiss
WASHINGTON (CN) — President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” passed the Senate early Tuesday morning, a major win for congressional Republicans hoping to follow through on the legislative centerpiece of the president’s second administration.
The Senate’s nail-biting 51-50 vote, which took place just after noon, bookended days of debate in the upper chamber and a marathon voting session Monday which saw lawmakers debate a raft of amendments, most offered by Democrats hoping to block the measure from moving forward or to water down its provisions.
And the final passage of the legislation also followed an overnight session during which Senate Republicans apparently struggled to corral the votes they needed to get it through the upper chamber.
The bill’s passage in the Senate hinged on Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who huddled with lawmakers for hours ahead of the Tuesday morning vote as they attempted to win her support. Murkowski had been skeptical of the budget reconciliation measure’s effects on her home state — and ultimately concessions, reportedly a cash injection to the bill’s fund for rural hospitals, proved enough to convince her to vote in favor.
With Murkowski���s backing, the Senate was split 50-50 on the budget reconciliation package, forcing Vice President JD Vance to cast the tiebreaking vote. Just three Republicans voted against the measure.
Republican senators Rand Paul and Thom Tillis in particular had fiercely criticized the budget reconciliation measure, with Tillis of North Carolina arguing in the days leading up to Tuesday’s vote that it would funnel tens of billions of dollars in health care funding out of the Tar Heel State, especially in rural communities, and could lead to hundreds of thousands of people losing Medicaid coverage.
Trump, who has pushed hard on the Senate to pass his flagship legislation, slammed Tillis for his opposition and vowed to support a primary challenger before the senator announced his forthcoming retirement.
Maine Senator Susan Collins joined Paul and Tillis in opposing the measure.
Speaking to reporters following the vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the bill’s passage an “incredible victory for the American people.” But he acknowledged that pulling his conference together was a challenge.
“This doesn’t happen easily, for sure,” Thune said.
Murkowski, meanwhile, told reporters that even though she was the linchpin vote for the budget bill’s passage, she hoped that the House would send it back to the Senate, recognizing that “we’re not there yet.”
Democrats waged an intense messaging campaign against the bill ahead of Tuesday’s vote, with the proposed Medicaid cuts forming the centerpiece of their opposition. Lawmakers juxtaposed the measure’s expanded tax breaks with the possibility that many Americans could lose health care coverage — arguing that Republicans were sacrificing the well-being of their constituents to benefit the country’s most wealthy people.
And following the vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer slammed the bill’s passage, saying that Senate Republicans “betrayed the American people and covered the Senate in utter shame.”
“This vote will haunt our Republican colleagues for years to come,” Schumer said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon, arguing that tens of millions of people would lose their health insurance and others would go hungry thanks to cuts to nutrition assistance programs.
The Democratic leader skewered his GOP colleagues for voting in “obeisance” to Trump rather than the interest of their own constituents, pointing out that Tillis had announced his intention to retire from the Senate “rather than vote yes and decimate his own state.”
Schumer had kind words for the North Carolina senator, calling him a “truth-speaker” and lauding him for coming out against his own party’s budget bill. But he refused to say whether Senate Democrats would consider him a potential bipartisan ally going forward.
“I’m not going to talk about using him or anything else,” he told Courthouse News. “He spoke the truth and America is hearing it.”
To that end, Schumer said that Senate Democrats would work overtime to demonstrate the budget measure’s pitfalls to the American people, telling reporters that Democrats would work in red states, “reminding people day in and day out of what happened.”
As the Senate moved to pass Trump’s budget reconciliation package Tuesday, Schumer brought forward a motion stripping the bill’s title — the measure is officially no longer known as the “Big, Beautiful Bill” but simply as “the Act.”
The Democratic leader told reporters that he hadn’t thought of the move as a slight against the president.
“I didn’t even think of President Trump,” he said. “I thought of the truth. This is not a beautiful bill.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being wealthy, but they don’t need another tax break — and they certainly shouldn't get a tax break by taking food from the mouths of hungry children,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor ahead of Monday’s voting marathon.
The House approved its own version of the budget reconciliation package last month, though lawmakers there, especially the Republican caucus’ more conservative spending hawks, had been unhappy with the language of the Senate legislation.
Now, the lower chamber is set to examine the Senate’s version of the measure. The House Rules Committee will convene Tuesday afternoon to begin debate, and House leadership is eyeing a Wednesday vote on the package.
In a statement Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the chamber would work “quickly” to pass the legislation.
“This bill is President Trump’s agenda, and we are making it law,” said Johnson. “House Republicans are ready to finish the job and put the One Big Beautiful Bill on President Trump’s desk in time for Independence Day.”