Senate Narrowly Approves Trump’s Sweeping Megabill Bill After All-Night Drama
With Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie, Republicans push a massive legislative package one step closer to Trump’s desk — but trouble looms in the House.
After a sleepless night of vote wrangling, frayed tempers, and behind-the-scenes dealmaking, Senate Republicans managed to pass former President Donald Trump’s massive domestic agenda bill early Tuesday — but not without exposing deep fractures within their own party and raising alarm among moderates and critics alike.
The 51-50 vote — secured only by Vice President JD Vance’s tie-breaking role — capped a turbulent stretch of negotiations as GOP leaders scrambled to deliver Trump his self-proclaimed “big, beautiful bill” before the July 4 deadline. Republican Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Rand Paul (Kentucky), and Thom Tillis (North Carolina) broke ranks and voted with Democrats, highlighting the bill’s polarizing effect even within conservative circles.
The legislation bundles several of Trump’s hallmark policies into a single sweeping package. It extends the 2017 tax cuts, incorporates pared-down versions of his campaign promises like eliminating taxes on tips, revamps Medicaid and other safety-net programs, expands defense and border funding, and lifts the debt ceiling by a staggering $5 trillion. Yet the ambitious scope of the bill has sparked unease across the political spectrum.
“This is a monumental step,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune. “We’re proud to move forward on a plan that strengthens America economically and militarily.” But the path to this moment was anything but smooth.
The marathon voting session — dubbed a “vote-a-rama” — dragged deep into the night as Republican leadership worked frenetically to bring dissenters on board. Thune and Senate Whip John Barrasso spent hours in hushed discussions with reluctant senators, sometimes reemerging with only vague updates like “progress is an elusive term.”
One of the highest-stakes holdouts was Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, whose concerns over Medicaid cuts and the bill’s economic impact on her state had party leaders offering tailored incentives — including an obscure tax break for whaling boat captains. But some of these sweeteners were ultimately gutted by the Senate parliamentarian, leaving her vote uncertain until the final moments.
Meanwhile, Rand Paul remained firm in his opposition due to the debt ceiling hike, while Tillis — who recently announced he would not seek re-election — made clear he would not be swayed. His exit is widely viewed as both a protest and a signal to leadership that his “no” was non-negotiable.
“I will not support a bill that puts North Carolina hospitals and patients in jeopardy,” Collins said in a post-vote statement, referring to the bill’s Medicaid changes. Her amendment to soften the impact was struck down by Democrats, whom she accused of hypocrisy.
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For many in the GOP, particularly fiscal hawks like Paul, the bill’s price tag and entitlement reforms proved too much. Yet others, including Sens. Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mike Lee (Utah), Rick Scott (Fla.), and Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), were ultimately persuaded to vote “yes” after a last-minute deal negotiated by Thune that promised future limits on federal Medicaid funding — a provision set to kick in by 2031.
But not all of these concessions materialized into actual changes. The promised amendment failed to gain traction and never received a floor vote, leaving some senators grumbling privately about a process they felt was rushed and opaque.
Now the spotlight turns to the House, where the bill faces potentially even steeper resistance. Speaker Mike Johnson is under intense pressure to rally a narrow and increasingly fractious GOP majority behind the package. The House is expected to begin deliberations as early as Wednesday.
Moderate Republicans are raising red flags about Medicaid cuts and rollbacks of clean energy incentives, while the conservative Freedom Caucus is fuming that the bill doesn’t go far enough in slashing federal spending. Still, Trump loyalists are hoping to replicate the strategy that helped move an earlier version through the chamber: forcing Republican lawmakers to choose between Trump’s agenda or risking his wrath.
That high-stakes gamble may not pay off this time. The Senate bill goes further than the House version on Medicaid reform, tightening the cap on state provider taxes in expansion states — a move that blindsided several governors and House members who expected the Senate to ease up.
The bill’s journey began in early 2024, when GOP leaders met with Trump’s campaign team to begin crafting a legislative playbook for a potential Republican trifecta. Over the following months, Finance Committee members and senior Senate Republicans shaped the bill piece by piece — testing what the party base would tolerate and where the cracks in unity would emerge.
Senators Johnson and Thune, in particular, kept in close contact throughout, aiming to ensure party cohesion. But now that the bill has passed the Senate, Johnson faces the difficult task of convincing skittish colleagues that supporting the bill won’t cost them politically.
Democrats, sensing opportunity, wasted no time in turning the GOP’s internal contradictions against them. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer blasted the bill as “irredeemable,” pointing to Tillis’ retirement as evidence of the damage the legislation is causing within Republican ranks.
“One of their own chose to walk away from politics rather than vote for this disaster,” Schumer said. “Others knew it was bad for their states, but they caved. This is going to haunt them next November.”
Indeed, Democrats are expected to seize on the bill’s provisions in the lead-up to the 2026 midterms, especially in swing states where Medicaid cuts could hit hard. The internal GOP divisions, on full display during the Senate’s frantic vote-a-rama, may foreshadow an even messier showdown in the House — and a bumpy road ahead for Trump’s legislative legacy.
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Thune is the architect of the deal with Murkowski so blame him too.